Stress

Strees is a syndrome that we can identify. When a person is frightened, her heart beats faster, the breathing gets heavy, she trembles, gets cold, the sphincters relax. Whoever has felt frightened has felt that in a higher or lesser degree. Stress is comparable to continuous fright, with variable intensity. It is a defense mechanism, as if the person was being subjected to aggression, or had been wounded and was haemorrhaging.

Hormones are freed from the adrenal gland, the catecholamines, that will act cutting down the blood flow, particularly to the kidneys and to the uterus. This mechanism aims to keep up the volume of blood in circulation. The kidneys (urine) and the uterus (menstruation). In turn, those hormones stimulate the blood flow to the heart and the brain.

This is a mechanism of survival in a dangerous situation. When under stress, the heart beats faster, the uterus and the kidneys receive less blood. What is the consequence for a pregnant organism? Less oxygen for the uterus and for the child. Stress is like an infection, it goes from one person to the other if is not controlled. The contrary is also true. A person who works in a birth room remarks that, sometimes, depending on the person that enters the room, the heartbeats of the embryo get steadier. A difficult, hard labor, cannot be separated from the place in which it takes place and from the persons that are present.