Pregnant women who become stressed may make their babies left-handed, researchers have revealed.
Scientists do not know whether the effect is permanent or temporary – but say it is probably not the main cause of left-handedness.
Studies of babies in the womb find that they touched their face with their left-hand when the mother was suffering stress.
The more stress the women reported, the more the babies were seen to use their left hands.
The research was conducted at the universities of Durham and Lancaster in northern England.
Researchers studied 15 healthy babies, between 24 and 36 weeks of pregnancy, taking 57 scans of each and recording 347 facial touches for the study, reported in Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition.
They say that most babies switched hands frequently when touching their faces.
Researcher Dr Nadja Reissland, of Durham University, said: "This suggests maternal stress could be having on effect on the child’s behaviour in the womb and highlights the importance of reducing maternal stress in pregnancy.
"Such measures may include increased emphasis on stopping stressful work early, the inclusion of relaxation classes in pre-natal care and involvement of the whole family in the pre-natal period.
"While we observed a higher degree of left-handed behaviour in the foetuses of stressed mothers than had been expected, we are not saying that maternal stress leads to a child becoming left-handed after birth, as there could be a number of reasons for this."
Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition. June 2014
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