Job stress could be causing mothers to deliver more girls than boys.
Some studies have shown that 30 percent of pregnant women report stress linked to depression, anxiety or job pressure; and now a new study found that pregnant women under stress are more likely to give birth to female babies.
Dr. Catherine Monk, an OB-GYN at New York Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center, says her study showed that women who were mentally tense had two boys for every three girls and were more likely to give birth prematurely and labor longer.
Dr. Monk says other researchers have found that cataclysmic events, such as the September 11th attacks and President Kennedy's assassination, also spawned a decrease in male births. She said in a statement,
"This stress in women is likely of long-standing nature; studies have shown that males are more vulnerable to adverse prenatal environments, suggesting that highly stressed women may be less likely to give birth to a male.”
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