Stressed Moms at a Higher Miscarriage Risk

"Try to provide yourself with what you consider a good environment. The less stress, the better," advised lead researcher Pablo Nepomnaschy, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

The NIH team evaluated 61 women over a period of one year, collecting each woman's urine three times a week to check for pregnancy status and levels of cortisol. The researchers found that women with increased cortisol levels during the early stage of pregnancy were more likely to miscarry.

Over a year, 61 of the women had 22 pregnancies. Nine pregnancies were carried to term; 13 were lost.

The research finds:

—Miscarriages were 2.7 times more likely among women with increased cortisol levels.

—Miscarriages happened after an average of about two weeks of pregnancy.

—90 % of women with high cortisol levels miscarried in the first three weeks of pregnancy.

—33 % of women with normal cortisol levels miscarried in the first three weeks of pregnancy.

Nepomnaschy said it is still not clear why a boost in cortisol might raise miscarriage risks, but he offered a hypothesis: "The body might interpret that (increased cortisol level) as conditions deteriorating, and maybe that might trigger an abortion mechanism."

About 15 percent of recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage, according to the March of Dimes. But Stephenson said that statistics usually include pregnancies that made it to six weeks. "When you count the ones that occur before six weeks, up to half of pregnancies end in miscarriage," she illustrated.

The best advice for women trying to get pregnant is to de-stress your life before you conceive, she elaborated.

"I talk about this a lot with my patients," Stephenson said. "I recommend that before they get pregnant, they take a serious look at their lifestyle."

And that includes getting enough sleep, so fatigue isn't an issue. "Fatigue is a type of stress," Stephenson said.