There is ample research that demonstrates that being a mother can be a challenging experience, particularly within the perinatal period, which is from pregnancy to 12 months postpartum. For many mothers, high levels of parenting stress, or other general life stressors can make parenting even more difficult.
Maternal stress has also been demonstrated to affect infant wellbeing with some researchers finding that infants of mothers experiencing high levels of stress will have delays in cognitive and language development. But what is the link between maternal stress and infant developmental delays?
Isabelle Hadley, a School Psychology Masters student at the University of Manitoba, thinks that mothers with high levels of stress are more likely to change how they speak when they experience stress, such as using less infant-directed speech and responding less to their infants. These changes in communication can, in turn, lead to developmental delays in infancy.
Fortunately, while there is much research that outlines how maternal stress can impact the way mothers interact with their children, there are also many ways how this can be helped.
If mothers realize that they are experiencing high levels of stress, it might be worthwhile for them to track the way they are speaking to their infants, or if they are being responsive to their infants’ prompts. However, it can be difficult to monitor language usage when undergoing feelings of stress, and this may simply add an additional stressor on the mother. Focusing the mother’s own well-being, a useful option would be to reach out to family and friends for support and/or to seek guidance from community programs such as Head Start or Healthy Baby for resources that can support them and their infants. Mothers can also seek support and guidance from health professionals on effective ways of communication as early intervention can be important for the wellbeing of both the mother and infant.
Although there is much research on the effects of stress of infant development, there is a gap in the research surrounding maternal stress and its impact on maternal communication. Due to this gap, Isabelle is conducting her thesis on the impact of maternal stress on maternal language usage, infant cognitive and language development through the Baby Language Lab. Through this research, she hopes to gain a deeper understanding of how maternal stress can impact maternal communication, and in turn, infant development. With the results of the study, she wishes to be able to support mothers through informing parenting interventions on effective ways of communication.
