Psychosocial factors and intrauterine fetal growth: a prospective study

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Abstract
This study focused on the possible role of psychosocial factors on intrauterine fetal growth. Pregnant women (n = 236) completed questionnaires on daily stressors and psychosomatic symptoms three times during pregnancy; in the 11-12th week, the 23-24th week and the 35-36th week. In addition, information was obtained on the quality of the marital relationship, social support, social class, physical work load, weight of the biological parents and life-style variables (including smoking, alcohol and coffee consumption). Birth weight corrected for gestational age, sex and parity was utilized as an index of intrauterine fetal growth. This dependent measure did not appear to be affected by exposure to daily stressors or disturbed maternal well-being on any of the measuring points. Smoking appeared to be the best predictor of fetal growth, together with maternal weight and the family's socioeconomic status. These variables accounted for 10.6% of the variance. It is postulated that the absence of a relationship between stressors and fetal development may be due to the buffering effects of adequate emotional support provided by the partners and the further social network.