Bocking - adverse environments

There are a number of examples of where adversity affects prenatal environment. From a physical environment perspective, we know that if the fetus is exposed to, for example, high blood sugar, if the mother has diabetes, that has not been well controlled and her blood sugars are high, that transfers across the placenta to the fetus and then as that high blood sugar triggers the fetus to grow excessively and that can create all sorts of different complications. So that’s one example of a physical adversity. We also know that stress, and, you know perhaps toxic stress or stress that is not able to be managed in an effective way; that that can create an increase in hormones, stress hormones in the mother. And that can then affect how the fetus develops and then being exposed to those stress hormones. It’s important though to differentiate between excessive stress or how we react, or how we respond to stress from in an abnormal way or, a way that’s not as effective as the way, people you know, can react to stress on a on an ongoing basis. Because we know that a certain amount of stress is important, it’s part of our lives and, being able to deal with that is something that’s critical. So maternal stress that’s excessive or toxic, or severe at a critical window in development; those are examples of things where an adverse environment or experience can give rise to changes in fetal development.