It is of note that within the pregnant group, while most
showed no response to the cold stressor, four did show
some increase in saliva cortisol. This complements the
finding of Schulte et al (1990) [18], who showed that one
individual did show a response to the CRH challenge. Depressed,
stressed or anxious women generally have raised
cortisol levels [4], and depression is common during pregnancy
[6]. It will be of interest to determine whether
women who are anxious or depressed while pregnant
show higher baseline cortisol levels and greater reactivity
than others.