I became pregnant a year after finishing my graduate journalism degree from an expensive private university , just as the economy tanked and the whole publishing industry imploded . It was the first time I had seen an issue of Vogue look more like an IKEA catalogue than an encyclopedia . I failed to land a job during this year , which to me meant my intricately planned life course had been derailed . We would have to wait until my husband finished his schooling before applying for a home loan , which meant I was going to have this baby while living at my in-laws ; there would be no decorated baby room for me to raise my first born . There were other stressors , of course , but nothing life threatening . Yet , I was devastated and my life as I knew it , was over . In hindsight , I realize I had much more control over my anxiety than I believed . The truth is , I chose to obsess , perhaps to punish myself , or maybe because I believed overthinking the situation would actually help ( I ’ m not alone in this thinking ). But it did the opposite . I may have steered clear of secondhand smoke but my mind was as murky as ever . And worst of all , my stress could have affected my unborn baby , studies show . Studies reveal that prolonged heightened levels of stress can be harmful to babies , possibly wiring their fetal brains for worry and anxiety permanently . Some anxiety can be good ; it motivates you to action . But prolonged periods of heightened anxiety can cause the stress hormone , cortisol , to be passed through the placenta to an unborn baby . In one study , infants who were exposed to consistently high levels of cortisol early in the pregnancy displayed a much higher sensitivity to stress than other babies .
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