Expectant mothers take heart this Easter. Chocolate is good for you and your baby. According to a study of over 300 women at the University of Helsinki, Finland, Katri Raikkonen reports that women who ate chocolate every day of their pregnancy lowered their stress levels, and their babies too.

Raikkonen and her colleagues asked pregnant women to rate their stress levels and chocolate consumption throughout the study.

After the babies were born, they looked for an association between the amount of chocolate their mothers had eaten and the babies' behaviour. Six months after birth, the researchers asked mothers to rate their infants' behaviour in various categories, including fear, soothability, smiling and laughter.

The babies born to women who had been eating chocolate daily during pregnancy were more active and "positively reactive" - a measure that encompasses traits such as smiling and laughter.

And the babies of stressed women who had regularly consumed chocolate showed less fear of new situations than babies of stressed women who abstained.

The researchers point out that they cannot rule out the possibility that chocolate consumption and baby behaviour are both linked with some other factor.

But they speculate that the effects they observed could result from chemicals in chocolate associated with positive mood being passed on to the baby in the womb.

So dad, if you're looking to give your expectant wife a gift this Sunday, consider giving her a large chocolate Easter egg. She and your child will be very happy.

Eat Chocolate, Live Better!

~Jennifer