Extreme stress in pregnancy does not directly cause cerebral palsy on its own, but severe or long lasting stress can contribute to conditions that raise the risk of brain injury in the baby, which can in turn increase the chance of cerebral palsy. Researchers see stress as one of several prenatal factors that may add up over time, rather than a single cause of the disorder.
Cerebral palsy is a lifelong condition that affects movement, posture, and muscle control. It happens when a baby’s developing brain is damaged during pregnancy, birth, or shortly after birth. Medical organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that most cases of cerebral palsy are related to brain damage before or during birth, often involving problems with blood flow, oxygen supply, infections, or bleeding in the brain, rather than one emotional event during pregnancy. You can see this explained in more detail in overviews of cerebral palsy causes such as those on informational and legal medical sites that discuss prenatal and birth related brain injury and lack of oxygen as major triggers for cerebral palsy, for example https://www.sokolovelaw.com/birth-injuries/cerebral-palsy/causes/.
To understand the role of stress, it helps to look at what happens in the body during extreme or chronic stress in pregnancy. Very high stress levels can raise hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, change blood pressure, and affect sleep, appetite, and immune function. Over time, this can influence the placenta and blood flow between mother and baby. There is growing research on what are sometimes called adverse prenatal exposures, which include strong psychological stress, poverty, relationship violence, serious illness, and substance use during pregnancy. A recent large study of children and teens found that babies exposed to more of these negative prenatal experiences had more mental health difficulties and changes in brain structure as they grew older, such as faster thinning of the cerebral cortex in areas important for attention and memory, compared with those who had fewer such exposures, as reported in a summary on Medical Xpress at https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-adverse-prenatal-exposures-linked-higher.html. That research focused on behavior and emotional health rather than cerebral palsy, but it shows that strong stress and other hardships during pregnancy can leave lasting marks on the brain.
Cerebral palsy itself is usually linked to more direct injury to the brain’s motor regions. Known medical risk factors include extreme prematurity, very low birth weight, infections in pregnancy, severe jaundice, bleeding in the baby’s brain, lack of oxygen, and serious complications in labor and delivery. For instance, research on extremely preterm infants, those born before 27 weeks, has shown a higher rate of cerebral palsy diagnoses compared with babies born later in pregnancy. A summary of a National Institutes of Health supported study following nearly 7,000 very premature children across the United States reported that many of these children had some degree of cerebral palsy, often linked with complications like intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, sepsis, and severe lung disease of prematurity, as described at https://childrenscerebralpalsy.com/research-update-increased-prevalence-of-cerebral-palsy-in-extremely-preterm-infants/.
So where does extreme stress connect with these more direct risks? On its own, emotional stress does not typically damage the baby’s brain. However, very high or unmanaged stress may raise the risk of complications that can harm the brain. For example:
• Chronic stress can increase the chance of high blood pressure and preeclampsia, conditions that reduce blood flow to the placenta. In severe cases, these can progress to HELLP syndrome, a dangerous pregnancy complication that can force an early delivery. When babies must be delivered very early or have reduced oxygen and nutrient supply before birth, their chances of brain injury and later cerebral palsy go up. Discussions of HELLP syndrome and its impact on birth outcomes point out that emergency premature delivery and oxygen deprivation can contribute to neurological problems such as hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and cerebral palsy in affected babies, as outlined in medical legal educational material at https://www.beckerjustice.com/blog/hellp-syndrome-understanding-its-impact-on-pregnancy-and-birth-injuries/.
• High stress is associated in many studies with early labor and low birth weight. Babies who are very small or born early have more fragile brains and blood vessels, and they face greater risk of bleeding in the brain, oxygen problems, and infections. These complications are well recognized as risk factors for cerebral palsy. Informational articles for families explain that low birth weight and prematurity are linked with higher rates of cerebral palsy in children, and they often occur together with infections or other complications in the newborn period, as mentioned, for example, in discussions of cerebral palsy causes such as https://www.karmaayurveda.com/blog/what-causes-cerebral-palsy-in-children/amp/ and in neonatal research summaries like https://childrenscerebralpalsy.com/research-update-increased-prevalence-of-cerebral-palsy-in-extremely-preterm-infants/.
• Stress may also affect immune function. Certain infections in pregnancy, such as rubella, cytomegalovirus, or severe bacterial infections of the uterus and membranes, are known to harm the developing brain and raise cerebral palsy risk. Reviews of cerebral palsy causes highlight that untreated infections in the mother can be a pathway to brain damage in the fetus, for example as noted in accessible explanations of cerebral palsy and pregnancy related causes like those at https://www.sokolovelaw.com/birth-injuries/cerebral-palsy/causes/
