1.0 Introduction

Children usually develop their cognitive, psychological, and emotional skills in early childhood, forming a basis for their lifelong health and well-being later. Therefore, it is essential to understand the risks associated with healthy development and evaluate factors that promote or protect it to help curb and reduce the long-term effects of early aversive conditions to increase child life prospects (King & King & King & Laplante, 2005). The developmental origins of health and disease theory suggest that when children are exposed to environmental stressors at a critical range during their early stages of life, they likely end up experiencing long-term adverse effects on their mental health and development at large. Therefore, the topic under research mainly majors and focuses on life span development (Hamada & Matthews, 2019). However, families can provide a robust supportive pillar to their children during their early growth stages. By doing that, they help counteract any possibilities of adverse effects and exposure that may arise during the whole period process. The parent-sibling relationship is crucial in providing clear guidelines that can help the child grow up properly. This report, therefore, outlines the different cognitive impacts of maternal stress on children’s development.

2.0 Why I Am Interested In this Research Question

I gained interest in this research topic because when such a topic is on exposure, there is a noticeable impact on the cognitive development and language of children who have been under the watch of their moderators and have attained at least two years since the pregnancy period. There have also been suggestions that there have been some small degrees of positive stress which has proved to be beneficial to children’s outcomes in terms of motor and cognitive development, as explained by Di Pietro. It is possible that the different products may have been affected in various ways, such as a child might suffer from anxiety and rapid physical development due to prenatal stress. Much still needs an understanding of the different types of stress and their effect on the unborn and developing fetus. Only a little piece of knowledge is available concerning the effects that are displayed as a result of work stress during the period of pregnancy. There is a need to know and understand more about the gestational ages of vulnerability for the different outcome results. Research gaps still need to be filled in the contributions and interactions between prenatal stress and genetic vulnerabilities of both the mother and the child. By filling these gaps, crucial information related to the cognitive and health developments of children can easily be put into use to help reduce the adverse effects that have been occurring. We also need to know more about to what extent, and at what times it is possible for sensitive postnatal care to counteract the effects of prenatal stress.

3.0 Effects of prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) on foetal and child development

3.1 Cognitive Development

According to research studies, the development of the brain’s fetus can easily be influenced by pregnancy-specific stress is more likely than general stress as there are high stakes of that happening. Matas-Blanco & Caparros-Gonzalez (2020) suggest that pregnancy-specific stress can affect executive function due to a reduction of the prefrontal cortex’s grey matter. As a result, the development of cognitive capacities can become modified. In addition, the mental development rate of infants was recorded to be so slow when measured using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development due to the high levels of cortisol recorded in the amniotic fluid. Moreover, the higher cortisol levels found present when measured in the maternal saliva were related to low cognitive development at four years. Studies have shown that the relationship between maternal stress and long-term cognitive development during pregnancy might result in excessive amounts of cortisol levels in the foetal brain. This will damage the myelin sheaths in the central nervous system, leading to low cognitive health-related development problems during the adolescent stages (Matas-Blanco & Caparros-Gonzalez, 2020). Specifically, this relation was more substantial when the mother experienced higher stress levels between 12–22 weeks of pregnancy, but not after that period. It was also evident that girls are more likely to tend to undergo side effects from their mother’s stress, especially during the first trimester of pregnancy (Matas-Blanco & Caparros-Gonzalez, 2020). This looks like a reality that happens since the pregnancy period is likely to be vulnerable to stress actions over the brain’s fetus. Nevertheless, other authors and