A framework is presented to characterize acute fetal and maternal responses to maternal psychological challenges to discover under what conditions these experiences might be advantageous, disadvantageous, or even have no effect on later developmental outcomes. Objectifying stress phenomena may be possible by characterizing the number of different biological, psychological, and behavioral response dimensions recruited by an organism to respond to environmental events. Acute maternal and fetal reactions were measured in a pregnant pigtailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) instrumented with chronic...