Can emotional Trauma Be Hereditary ?

Can emotional Trauma experienced by a Parent be Transfered to a unborn child ?

A study says it's possible ...

Emotional trauma in the mother world definitely raise the levels of certain chemicals that are present in everyone's body, since what's in the mothers blood is shared with unborn baby, yes the baby would experience distressing conditions.

However unless the mother is under constant, long term stress it would be unlikely to cause long term effects in the baby. But something like PTSD could be caused in the baby if the stress is indeed severe and long term.

I can't say for sure if this would cause long term effects for the baby after birth.

It might have some chemical effect....just like they say that there is a calming effect on classical music for the unborn baby, I would think that if a Mother was under a high level of stress could have some level of chemical effect on the baby which might cause issues after birth......but I was totally upset when I was pregnant with my daughter but it didn't have any effect on her. She was a very easy baby to care for, never fussed, ate well & slept through the night from the time she came home from the hospital.....was walking (running) by the age of 10 months.

Stress and starvation do affect an unborn child as it might alter how genes are expressed. It is known as epigenetics. Many things affect if a gene is switched off or on. The child will carry their specific epigenetic pattern through life.

Horizon made a pretty nice documentary about it called The ghost in your genes.

The chemical and epigenetic stuff is all relevant. There is a study on mice that suggests that trauma is passed down to offspring. Apparently traumatized mice end up with changes in their sperm. I don't know all the details and genetics is way too complicated for a non-scientist to understand, but there is new evidence that points to the transmission of trauma to offspring.