When a pregnant woman hears an explosion or stays awake all night during an air raid, her body triggers a cascade of reactions designed for short-term danger. But in the conditions of war, this state becomes chronic — and it is the duration, not the intensity of a single episode, that determines the risks for the child.

What happens in the body

According to Dmytro Hovseev, head of the Department of Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology at Bogomolets National Medical University and professor, cortisol levels in a mother's blood are naturally elevated during pregnancy — the body mobilizes resources to carry the pregnancy. Stress adds another layer to this level. The cardiovascular system accelerates, oxygen demand increases, and the uterus responds with increased tone.

The placenta is not a hermetic barrier. It is permeable to cortisol: on average, 10 times less hormone reaches the fetus than circulates in the mother's blood. But even this amount, accumulating over months, triggers changes.

The cortisol level in the fetal blood remains elevated for a long time and promotes faster brain maturation — but not at the pace and sequence that is optimal for development.

According to clinical research data summarized in materials from sleep medicine conferences

How it ends — and when

The consequences of chronic stress during pregnancy are not always visible immediately after birth. Research from a Dutch cohort that studied children of women who experienced the 1940 invasion found that male fetuses were the most affected. In some of them, in adulthood, an increased risk of schizophrenia was identified — a disorder associated with disrupted early brain maturation.

Among documented complications — not only psychoneurological. Clinical research records:

• Premature labor — stress increases uterine tone; in Ukraine, after the start of the full-scale invasion, the number of such deliveries tripled
• Low birth weight and increased risk of cesarean section
• Coordination disorders, speech problems, hyperactivity in the postnatal period
• Attention deficit disorder and autism spectrum — with higher frequency in children whose mothers experienced prolonged stress

What actually helps

The advice to "worry less" under shelling conditions is not advice. It is about specific mechanisms for reducing cortisol levels: balanced nutrition with sufficient omega-3 (fatty fish, nuts), stable sleep even in situations of night alarms, psychological support. The problem is that access to the latter — psychological help — for pregnant women in frontline regions remains the most limited.

Maternal stress is not a verdict for the child: the fetal brain has a certain plasticity, and early intervention after birth can compensate for some of the risks. But only if these risks are diagnosed in time and not concealed.

If premature labor in Ukraine has tripled already in the first year of full-scale war — what will happen to the neuropsychological health of this generation in 10–15 years, and are the resources for its support already in place now?