Alright, articles like this really don't help the cause, but sometimes, knowlege is power, right?

Miscarriage Risk Higher For Stressed Moms

According to a study done by the National Institute of Health, moms who experience more stress in the first three weeks of pregnancy have higher chances of losing the pregnancy.

In my own case, this news is troubling. When I am actively trying to become pregnant, pregnancy is the only thing that I can focus on. As a result of this blinders on thinking I would begin to stress about taking a pregnancy test before I had even missed my period. In a few of my pregnancies, I even knew the date that I had conceived. So, the stress was there from the get go. And don't you know, I stress with the best of them.

Some women don't realize their pregnancies until after their missed period and at times, even later. We have all heard the stories of women who deliver, who never even realized that they were pregnant. These stories always drive me crazy and I really wonder if they are true.

And thinking more on this, I believe that I was most stressed out when I was pregnant with Ivy. Every day that I went past my earlier miscarriages, I had more to risk because I had more to lose. By the 2nd to 3rd trimesters, I was actively trying to let go of any successful outcome (a healthy baby) to try to keep myself sane. And here she is. Go figure.

Researchers measured stress by fluctuations in the stress hormone cortisol in female patients. Those patients with higher cortisol levels were found to be three times more likely to miscarry. The study's authors concluded by suggesting that maternal stress may be especially dangerous in the earliest stages of pregnancy when the embryo is attaching to the womb.