Don’t let this stress you out

Having one traumatic experience is bad enough. If you’ve constantly experienced stress since before birth, you may be in for an especially tough time. Our emotions may be influenced by infections experienced in the mother’s womb. This can result from two-hit stress, where an infection during pregnancy is followed by social stress during postpartum development. A team of researchers recently set out to understand the mechanisms behind which two-hit stress contributes to brain dysfunction and mental disorders.