A baby can detect anger in a voice as early as 5 months. Parental arguing causes stress in the baby, elevating their heart rate and increasing their blood pressure.
“Infants are fairly resilient, but we are concerned about harm when yelling out of anger around an infant or towards an infant happens at a significant level of intensity or commonly in the home,” says Horvitz. “This will likely increase infant anxiety, which overtime may have an impact similar to trauma.”
Research suggests that babies are indeed affected by parental squabbles, and exposure to chronic conflict may affect brain development. Experimental studies confirm that babies can sense when their mothers are distressed, and the stress is contagious.
Babies are born innately seeking safety and building trust that their needs will be met, she continues. “Yelling or aggression is felt by the baby as being unsafe, which releases stress hormones, leaving them with a general feeling of unease.”
Being frequently yelled at as a child can even impact how we think and feel about ourselves in adulthood. In fact, being yelled at increases the activity of the amygdala in the brain. Studies show that an overactive amygdala can cause stress, which plays a significant role in developing depression.
A baby can detect anger in a voice as early as 5 months.
Parental arguing causes stress in the baby, elevating their heart rate and increasing their blood pressure.
“For instance, a baby may not remember explicitly the time they were yelled at in the kitchen booster seat when they were 6 months old, but their body remembers the way it recoiled, the way it pumped blood to increase oxygen to the muscles in response to feeling unsafe,” Keith explains.
Infants, children and adolescents can show signs of disrupted early brain development, sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression, conduct disorder and other serious problems as a result of living with severe or chronic inter-parental conflict.
Take a minute
It's ok to give up for a minute, put the baby down, and recollect yourself. Sure the crying will continue, but the quick break can prevent you from going over the edge. Take that step back from the ledge. Try to at least get enough space to not have the screaming bore into your brain.
Summary. Babies and toddlers are directly affected by trauma. They are also affected if their mother, father or main caregiver is suffering consequences of the trauma. If their home and routine become unsettled or disrupted as a result of the trauma, babies and toddlers are also vulnerable.
In a follow-up across pregnancy, the fetuses of the high-anger women were noted to be more active and to experience growth delays. The high-anger mothers' high prenatal cortisol and adrenaline and low dopamine and serotonin levels were mimicked by their neonates' high cortisol and low dopamine levels.
Scientists found that being subjected to shouting and verbal abuse can trigger a neuroendocrine change in the woman, which can decrease blood flow to the uterus.
A 2014 study in The Journal of Child Development demonstrated that yelling produces results similar to physical punishment in children: increased levels of anxiety, stress and depression along with an increase in behavioral problems.
You and Your Baby's Emotional Connection
Research has shown that, during pregnancy, your baby feels what you feel—and with the same intensity. That means if you're crying, your baby feels the same emotion, as if it's their own.
Can babies sense stress and anxiety? Babies sense stress. While most caregivers and parents tend to think the ability to sense stress only happens later in their child's life (after a year or so of age), studies show babies can sense their caretaker's stress as early as three months of age.
The myth: We used to think that babies and toddlers are too young to understand when adults are fighting and that they don't remember fights even when they are loud and stressful. The facts: We now know that parental fighting has an impact on babies, toddlers, and even babies still in utero.
The American Journal of Epidemiology reported that women who had been in a physical fight during their pregnancy had the highest risk of stillbirth. The March Of Dimes adds that physical abuse during pregnancy can cause premature birth, low birthweight, physical injuries, bleeding, and stillbirth.
It can make them behave badly or get physically sick. Children react to angry, stressed parents by not being able to concentrate, finding it hard to play with other children, becoming quiet and fearful or rude and aggressive, or developing sleeping problems.
Increased noise levels can cause stress. This can cause changes in a the body that can affect your developing baby. Sound can travel through your body and reach your baby. Very loud noises may be able to damage your baby's hearing.
Most recently, some studies are suggesting that stress in the womb can affect a baby's temperament and neurobehavioral development. Infants whose mothers experienced high levels of stress while pregnant, particularly in the first trimester, show signs of more depression and irritability.
During pregnancy, stress can increase the chances of having a premature baby (born before 37 weeks of pregnancy) or a low-birthweight baby (weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces). Babies born too soon or too small are at increased risk for health problems.
When you feel happy and calm, it allows your baby to develop in a happy, calm environment. However, emotions like stress and anxiety can increase particular hormones in your body, which can affect your baby's developing body and brain.
The sound of your baby's cries activates areas of the brain associated with movement and speech; it primes you to pick up and talk to your crying infant. This evidence suggests that we have hard-wired responses to our child's distress.
So whether the stressor is the sound of gunfire or a baby wailing for hours on end for months, the internal stress reaction is the same. The bottom line is that any traumatic or extraordinarily stressful situation can indeed cause PTSD. Postpartum mothers without a strong support network are certainly at risk.