Fetal response to maternal anxiety: a factor in antepartum heart rate monitoring

Summary

Women in late pregnancy were subjected to mild psychological stress by listening, through headphones, to a prerecorded sequence of sounds which included that of a baby crying. Maternal reaction was detected using maternal heart rate and maternal skin resistance. Coincidental changes were observed in fetal heart rate patterns. Fetal heart rate pattern changes similar to those induced by the tape-recorded sounds have been observed during ‘non-stressed’ antepartum monitoring when patients were disturbed by sounds significant to them.