The Truth About Stress During Pregnancy

You’re exhausted. You’re worried. And now someone’s telling you to “just relax” for your baby’s sake — as if you haven’t tried that already. Between the nausea, the fear, the financial pressure, and everyone’s unsolicited advice, you’re barely holding it together. And honestly? The guilt about being stressed can feel worse than the stress itself.

You know something about this constant tension isn’t right, but no one’s explaining what’s actually happening inside your body — or inside your baby’s developing brain. Here’s what most doctors won’t tell you: That umbilical cord isn’t just delivering nutrients and oxygen. It’s also connecting your nervous system to your baby’s nervous system.

When you’re stuck in stress mode, your baby’s nervous system learns that a stressed state is “normal” — during one of the most crucial windows of brain development.

This isn’t about blame. This is about understanding fetal programming — how your stress today creates patterns in your baby’s nervous system that can shape their health for years… and more importantly, what you can do about it.

Your Nervous System Is Teaching Your Baby’s Nervous System

The umbilical cord is more than a pipeline — it’s a neurological connection. When stress hormones like cortisol stay elevated, they cross the placenta and directly influence your baby’s developing brain. If you’re stuck in sympathetic dominance — constant “fight-or-flight” mode — your baby’s nervous system learns that state as their baseline.

Think of the nervous system as the air traffic controller of the entire body. If the controller is constantly panicked, everything else starts to malfunction. Research published in Development and Psychopathology found that infants of mothers with the highest stress levels showed 22% higher stress reactivity — meaning they were more easily upset, harder to soothe, and slower to recover from stress. That pattern started before they ever took their first breath.

Fetal Programming Creates Lifelong Patterns

During pregnancy, your baby is building the foundation of their nervous system. Chronic stress causes:

• A more reactive amygdala (the brain’s fear center)

• A hypersensitive HPA axis (stress response system)

• Poor vagal tone, impacting digestion, immune function, inflammation, heart rate, emotional regulation, and social connection

  
  

It’s like building a house on a cracked foundation — everything that comes later has to adapt around it.

Children whose mothers experienced high stress during pregnancy show higher rates of:

• Anxiety

• ADHD

• Sensory Processing Disorder

• Asthma and allergies

• Oxidative stress and inflammation issues

These aren’t coincidences — they are the effects of fetal programming.

Understanding the “Perfect Storm”

For many families, the challenges begin even before pregnancy: fertility struggles, IVF, hormone treatments, emotional strain, and financial stress. By the time pregnancy happens, the nervous system is already depleted.

Then pregnancy adds:

• Physical discomfort

• Fear about the baby’s development

• Work and relationship stress

• Pressure about labor and postpartum

  
  

Babies develop within the environment we provide — and if that environment is filled with stress, their nervous system wires itself for survival.

They don’t grow out of it — they grow into different symptoms as the brain matures:

Colic → Constipation → Sensory Sensitivities → ADHD → Anxiety

The challenges simply evolve as time goes on.

You Can Support Your Nervous System — Starting Now

You can’t eliminate every stressor (you’re growing a human, after all!). But you can help your nervous system shift out of survival mode and into a calm, regulated state that supports healthy fetal development.

How Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care Helps

This type of care works with the nervous system at a foundational level. Gentle, specific adjustments help release tension patterns so your nervous system can move back toward balance.

With INSiGHT Scans, we can actually measure how your nervous system is functioning:

• HRV: balance between fight-or-flight and rest-digest

• sEMG: tension and stress patterns in the spine

• Thermal scans: areas of neurological imbalance

  
  

These scans track progress — often before symptoms change.

When you regulate, your baby learns regulation. This is your window of influence — the foundation is being built right now.

A Real Story: Catherine’s Fifth Pregnancy

Catherine was pregnant for the fifth time — but only the second time with neurologically-focused chiropractic care.

Her first pregnancies?

• Sciatic pain

• Crippling fatigue

• Heartburn

• Emotional overwhelm

This pregnancy?

She was adjusted 2–3x a week. She slept better. Stress was lower. Her energy was higher. Symptoms were minimal. She kept up with her other kids and felt confident heading into labor. Her scans confirmed the improvements her body was feeling — and she knew her nervous system was supporting her baby’s development from the very start.

You Have More Control Than You Think

At Bright Futures Chiropractic, we understand that your baby’s brain and nervous system are developing right now. Your nervous system is setting the blueprint.

By helping your body regulate despite stress — instead of trying to eliminate stress entirely — you can create a calmer, healthier foundation for your baby.

If you’re local, we would love to support you through pregnancy. Reach out to schedule a consultation and nervous system scan.

818 W 18th St, Chicago, Il 60608

and

914 S Arthur Ave, Arlington Heights, IL 60005

Phone: 224.764.1644