Study: Women exposed to trauma in their lives gave birth to underweight male infants
In the first study of its kind, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found significantly lower birth weights in male infants--an average decrease of 38 grams, or approximately 1.3 ounces--born to women who had been exposed to trauma at some point in their lives and who secreted higher levels of cortisol, a hormone related to stress, in late pregnancy.