23/11/2025
A new study finds that a mother’s stress during pregnancy may actually influence how fast her baby ages – starting with their teeth.🦷
Published in Frontiers in Oral Health, the research shows that infants born to mothers with higher cortisol levels (the body’s main stress hormone) tend to have more teeth by six months old.
Researchers followed 142 U.S. mothers, collecting saliva samples during the late second and third trimesters to measure cortisol and other hormones. When their babies were checked at six and 12 months, the differences were striking. While most children had at least one tooth, babies of the most stressed mothers had about four more teeth at six months than those of mothers with the lowest cortisol levels.
Because baby teeth begin forming in the womb, the findings suggest that prenatal stress may accelerate early biological development, adding to growing evidence that stress during pregnancy can shape children’s long-term health.