Genetics of stress in children exposed to certain steroids before birth

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are steroids produced by your body. These reduce swelling in your body and help us use the nutrients in foods. GCs also play an important role in fetal growth. If a woman is at risk for giving birth too early, she is sometimes given GC drugs. These speed up organ development in the fetus. GCs are also released as a normal response to stress. Our bodies turn certain genes involved in our response to stress on or off as needed. Our environment and other factors also affect turning these genes off and on. Researchers in this study will look at the genetics linked to stress. They will compare children exposed to GC drugs before they were born and those that weren’t. They will look for how their bodies turn on and off certain stress related genes. Researchers think that children exposed to GC drugs before they were born do not deal as well with stress. The results of this study could help us learn more about how stress affects pregnancies. This could help us better treat women with high stress pregnancies.