A new study suggests that children whose mothers were exposed to even moderately severe stress during pregnancy may show the effects in their intellectual development.  The study assessed intellectual and language development in 89, 5-year-old children,  whose mothers were pregnant during an ice storm in Quebec, Canada that left several million without power for as long as six weeks.

Although all the children were within the normal range of intelligence, the researchers found that language development and verbal IQ tended to be lower in children whose mothers had faced the most stress during the storm -- living more days without power, being forced to stay in a shelter, or losing income, for instance.  More severe natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, likely have had greater potential effects on both mothers and children.

Dr. David P. Laplante of Douglas Hospital Research Centre in Canada led the team that reported their findings in the September issue of the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  However, the researchers emphasized to Reuters that more studies are needed to confirm whether or not stress can “program” fetal brain development.