What happens during a woman’s pregnancy can have life-long (or potentially life-shortening) effects on her child.

When 94 healthy young adults were tested, those whose mothers had experienced severe stress during their pregnancy (for example, the death or sudden severe illness of an immediate family member, loss of their home) were found to have much shorter telomeres than those whose mothers had had a healthy, uneventful pregnancy.

Why does telomere length matter?

Telomeres are like a string of little protective beads that cap off the ends of the chromosomes in our cells, protecting them — and the DNA of which they are composed — from damage. …read more of Pregnancy Stress Can Have Life-Long Effects on a Child here