Prenatal cortisol exposure predicts infant cortisol response to acute stress

Experimental animal findings suggest that early stress and glucocorticoid exposure may program the function of the hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis in the offspring. The extension of these findings to human development is not yet clear. A prospective longitudinal study was conducted on 125 mothers and their normally developing children. Amniotic fluid was obtained at, on average, 17.2 weeks gestation; infant behavior and cortisol response to a separationreunion stress was assessed at 17 months. Amniotic fluid cortisol predicted infant cortisol response to separationreunion stress: infants who were exposed to higher levels of cortisol in utero showed higher pre-stress cortisol values and blunted response to stress exposure. The association was independent of prenatal, obstetric, and socioeconomic factors and childparent attachment. The findings provide some of the strongest data in humans that HPA axis functioning in the child may be predicted from prenatal cortisol exposure. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 55: 145155, 2013