The Research on Stress During Pregnancy and How to Manage It
Pregnancy Podcast
Vanessa Merten
4.5 • 970 Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We all experience some level of stress in daily life. Pregnancy can be a period of additional stress as you are experiencing many physical changes and symptoms, and are mentally preparing for birth and a new baby. In a sense, everything you expose yourself to during pregnancy can also affect your baby, and stress is not an exception. Physiological changes that occur when you are stressed can affect your developing baby, and high levels of stress may increase the risk of certain complications. The extent to which you and your baby are affected depends on your stress response and your ability to turn it off. The good news is that by understanding your stress response and learning evidence-based ways to manage it, you can reduce negative effects and support both your well-being and your baby's healthy development.
Full article and resources for this episode: https://pregnancypodcast.com/stress/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | you are listening to the pregnancy podcast with Vanessa Merton. |
| 0:10.0 | Hello, thank you for tuning into the pregnancy podcast. In today's episode, we're talking about stress |
| 0:17.4 | and anxiety and pregnancy. We all deal with some level of stress on a daily basis. |
| 0:23.6 | When you're pregnant, that can be a period of additional stress. |
| 0:27.8 | You're going through a lot of physical changes, you're preparing for birth and a new baby. |
| 0:33.0 | In a sense, everything that you expose yourself to during pregnancy can also affect your baby. |
| 0:39.2 | And stress is not an exception. |
| 0:41.7 | Physiological changes that happen when you're under stress can impact your developing baby. |
| 0:47.0 | Stress that puts you at a higher risk for some complications can also affect your baby's health and |
| 0:52.7 | development. |
| 0:53.8 | How you and your baby are affected by stress, |
| 0:56.7 | both in the short and the long term, is a function of your stress response and your ability to turn it |
| 1:02.8 | off. The good news is that understanding your stress response and learning about evidence-based |
| 1:08.8 | tools to manage stress can minimize the adverse effects for you |
| 1:13.3 | and your baby, and it's going to positively impact your mental health. You can find the complete |
| 1:19.7 | article and all of the resources for this episode at Pregnancypodcast.com slash stress. |
| 1:33.8 | You are on the public feed of the podcast, which gives you access to a limited number of episodes and you will hear advertisements. |
| 1:37.4 | Become a pregnancy podcast premium member for an ad-free experience, plus you get access to hundreds of episodes exclusively |
| 1:47.7 | available to premium members. One of my favorite things about doing this podcast is that I spend |
| 1:55.0 | so much time researching, digging through evidence, going down all the rabbit holes so that you don't have to. |
| 2:03.1 | Whatever you're looking for more information on, whether it's a pregnancy symptom, or if you're |
| 2:08.6 | debating about including something in your birth plan, there is an episode of the pregnancy |
... |
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