Pandemic-Related Stressors Affect Fetuses.

• Position: PREGNANCY

Prolonged levels of stress and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to altering key features of fetal brain development, even if the mother was not infected by the virus, suggests a study--led by researchers at Children's National Hospital, Washington, D.C.--published in Communications Medicine.

"Understanding how contemporary stressors may influence fetal brain development during pregnancy has major implications for basic science and informing public policy initiatives," says senior author Catherine Lim-peropoulos, chief and director of the Developing Brain Institute at Children's National. "With this work, we are able to show there's a problem; it's happening prenatally; and we can use this model to start exploring how we can reduce stress in moms and support unborn babies."

To better understand the effects of environmental exposures on the fetus during pregnancy, further confirmation of the team's latest findings is needed by ruling out other possibilities, such as maternal nutrition, financial security, and genetic factors.

The psychosocial impact of COVID-19 on fetal brain development remains vastly understudied. The neurologic...