Can Babies Really Feel Stress?

Yes, they can. Both prior to, during and after birth.

The addition of a new baby into your household affects everyone in the family and along with the joy, can be stressful and overwhelming.

Some stress is normal. It is actually helpful to have some upsets now and again. It teaches your baby coping skills, and how to allow themselves to be soothed. If no stress ever occurred, your baby would have a hard time later in life dealing with the realities of day to day existence.

But sometimes stress becomes chronic - or ongoing - and eventually your baby adapts to it. When this happens, your baby's brain is saturated in stress chemicals, and growing in a different way. Needing more protection from upsetting events, eventually the brain becomes regulated at a different setpoint for stress…this means that your baby will react differently to stressful situations all her life unless healing or repatterning takes place. Babies who gestated in chronic stress tend to cry more, be harder to soothe and get upset more quickly and for longer periods that babies gestated in a calmer environment.

Stress occurs for your baby in many ways. Your baby may be adapting or experiencing stress if he or she:

  • was premature
  • was born via Cesaerian Section, forceps or vacuum extraction
  • was adopted
  • had a long, or extremely fast birth
  • was induced
  • had a trauma during the birth (cord wrapped around neck for example)
  • separation from you immediately after birth
  • was circumcised, or had other surgery very early

Or if you:

  • were given drugs during the labor/birth
  • were experiencing extreme/ongoing stress (marital problems, job stress, death of a loved one) during pregnancy or the first months after birth
  • have been ambivalent about being a parent
  • have had previous miscarriages or loss of another baby
  • had extensive prenatal testing
  • strongly wanted a baby of a different gender

This list is by no means exhaustive. However, if you or your baby has experienced any of the above or something else you feel fits in to that list, you can expect your baby to have issues with any of the following:

  • having trouble with sleep
  • feeding
  • separation/stranger anxiety beyond what's normal for development
  • resistance to cuddling
  • constant need to be held
  • constant crying, or often fussy
  • never being upset

If any of these things has occurred, your system and your baby's system may not have had the chance to find a rhythm together. One or both of your internal systems is "off" and creates disorganization for your relationship.

These disorganized states can occur many times a day, and mostly are soothed by finding ways to calm yourself and your baby.  That is normal, and it's how we learn to calm ourselves and cope with stress. When it becomes an issue is when something is keeping the stress stuck, and you begin to live with it.  Then, instead of soothing, you are ignoring the problem adapting to it which just creates more stress.

You can help yourself, and help your baby resolve past or current upsets.

Identifying and resolving that which is causing a stuckness, or stressful experience within you or your baby is important, and can make all the difference in how your baby's brain develops, and how she moves through her life and relationships through adulthood. 

It is possible to prevent or minimize significant levels of stress for both you and your baby. It's also possible to work with your baby to resolve past upsets, helping his or her brain to reorganize in a healthy way. Click below to find out about my

Email me , if you'd rather, or call 509-293-9530 in the U.S. to schedule your free 20 minute consultation to discuss your situation and options. I usually respond within one business day.

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