Pregnancy may be the mother of all guilt trips. But that anxiety doesn’t necessarily end with the birth of a healthy child. Researchers are finding that in utero exposures could be linked with behavioral or emotional problems in young children and increased cancer risk and other problems later in life.
For example exposure to artificial estrogens such as BPA and Diethylstilbestrol ( DES ) can change the way the fetus responds to estrogen later in life and may be associated with breast cancer.
- Read Pregnant? Here’s more to worry about
by Julie Deardorff, November 15, 2011. - DES studies on fertility and pregnancy.
Surely there is nothing in human experience that is more filled with strange and conflicting emotions than pregnancy. That is true for most men I think. A time of great hope and anxiety, chilling fear and tremendous excitement. So much to do, so little time or energy. So much that you need to accomplish. So much that is unknown. When the health issues intrude the impacts cannot be calculated.
Harold Gardner