Accumulating research shows that prenatal exposure to maternal stress increases the risk for behavioral and mental health problems later in life. This review systematically analyzes the available human studies to identify harmful stressors, vulnerable periods during pregnancy, specificities in the outcome and biological correlates of the relation between maternal stress and offspring outcome. Effects of maternal stress on offspring neurodevelopment, cognitive development, negative affectivity, difficult temperament and psychiatric disorders are shown in numerous epidemiological and case-control studies. Offspring of both sexes are susceptible to prenatal stress but effects differ. There is not any specific vulnerable period of gestation; prenatal stress effects vary for different gestational ages possibly depending on the developmental stage of specific brain areas and circuits, stress system and immune system. Biological correlates in the prenatally stressed offspring are: aberrations in neurodevelopment, neurocognitive function, cerebral processing, functional and structural brain connectivity involving amygdalae and (pre)frontal cortex, changes in hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis and autonomous nervous system.

越来越多的研究表明，产前暴露于母体压力会增加以后生活中出现行为和心理健康问题的风险。本综述系统地分析了现有的人类研究，以确定有害压力源、怀孕期间的脆弱期、结果的特异性以及母体压力与后代结果之间关系的生物学相关性。许多流行病学和病例对照研究显示了母体压力对后代神经发育、认知发育、消极情感、难相处的气质和精神疾病的影响。两性的后代都容易受到产前压力的影响，但效果不同。没有任何特定的易受孕期；不同胎龄的产前压力效应可能会有所不同，这可能取决于特定大脑区域和回路、压力系统和免疫系统的发育阶段。产前应激后代的生物学相关性是：神经发育异常、神经认知功能、大脑处理、涉及杏仁核和（前）额叶皮层的功能和结构大脑连接、下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺 (HPA) 轴和自主神经系统的变化。