Sex of Baby Drives Response to Pregnancy Stress

Researchers at the University of Adelaide say that the response to stressors during the pregnancy and the ability to survive the pregnancy depends on the sex of the baby. Male and female babies have different growth patterns following stressors during pregnancy. A baby's growth pattern during the pregnancy is how they respond to stress. When the mother gets stressed, a male baby does not pay attention to the stress and keeps growing whereas the female's growth rate slows down dropping to a little below average. When there is another stress the female baby keeps growing at the same rate and the male doesn't, sometimes causing complications or even death in the uterus. Professor Clifton, the leader of this research, says that this research could "lead to sex-specific therapies in pre-term pregnancies and premature newborns."