At this time, there is too little scientific evidence to establish that
a woman’s psychological state during pregnancy affects her child’s
developmental outcomes. It is premature to extend findings from animal
studies to women and children, particularly given the disparity in
the way the animal and human studies are designed. The question of
whether maternal stress and affect serve to accelerate or inhibit maturation
of the fetal nervous system, and postnatal development in
turn, remains open. It has been proposed that a certain degree of stress
during early childhood is required for optimal organization of the
brain, because stress provokes periods of disruption to existing
structures (Huether, 1998), and this may be true for the prenatal
period as well.