Prenatal Consciousness

Photo: Gurudarshan Khalsa

After watching a Ted talk video on conception to birth, I was inspired to write about prenatal consciousness.  When does human consciousness begin?  What does that matter and how does it effect the baby?  How can we positively alter humanity by shifting our attitude towards pregnancy?

Have you ever heard the saying "You began as a twinkle in your parent's eyes"?   Parents act as genetic and epigenetic engineers for their child months before conception.  It really does make a difference whether you born in love, haste or hate.  The energy that parents hold vibrationally leading up to and at the moment of conception are passed along to the embryo and developing fetus.

From preconception onward the experience in the womb shapes the development of the brain and nervous system. Thus the expression of health, personality, emotional temperment, and power for higher thought are affected.

Here's a break down of prenatal development

12 Days Gestation
- first heart cells form

32 Days Gestation 
- brain is formed

6 Weeks after Conception
- central nervous system is established
- heart is beating
- fetus responds to touch

12 Weeks Gestation
- responds to light, sound, and taste
- kicks, sucks his thumb, swallows, breaths, and digests.
-At about this time the fetus is taking in their envioronment through the electromagnetic field of the mother

16 Weeks
- brain has structure for implicit memory
- shows signs of indivudual behavior
- has facial expressions similar to parents
- does intentional behavior

24 Weeks
- baby responds with precise movement to each sound in the parent's speech
- reacts to arguing
- holds umbilical cord when mom smokes or ingests other drugs
-heart rate increases if mom thinks about a cigarette
- very rapid brain growth

German researcher Dr. Gerherd Schroth found that by the second half of the pregnancy babies are definitely open to direct communication.  He found that if mothers spent time in quiet stillness each day they would begin to develop a strong sense of what their baby wants to communicate.  He found that they could ask direct questions and get accurate answers.  Also women that spent time connecting with their child this way would have easier birth and postnatal period.

There are therapists, such as Myrna Martin,  that work with children with emotional and developmental issues that focus on their prenatal experience.  She uses sand boxes with toys and allows children to "play" their experience.  More often then not what she has found that children will always make two scenarios in the sand box.  One prenatal and one postnatal.  Sometimes just prenatal.  She has found that children will reveal things that were happening in the home before they were born that had never been discussed with them. Proving that they were too also experiencing the circumstances consciously.

Maternal experiences such as depression, previous reproduction loss, drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, poor nutrition, and domestic violence all seem to be the most altering prenatal experiences.  And it's no surprise considering the increased amount of cortisol (stress hormone) that would be released in the mother and baby.

In the book The Fetal Matrix: Evolution, Development and Disease it states that cortisol in high levels is toxic to the unborn child and infant.  Chronic high cortisol levels from high stress reduces the number of cells in organs, the nerve supply and the blood supply, thereby making them vulnerable to diseases later in life.  The book also claims that at least 50% of chronic diseases are prenatal in etiology (heart disease, coronary diseases, stroke, osteoporosis).

So what can we do?  Pregnant women should be treated with kindness and respect.  I know that is obvious but I feel like in our modern culture, pregnancy and motherhood is not looked at a highly important job.  Women are pushed to continue productivity and function as if nothing has changed.  Women that are both pregnant and mothering small children should be viewed as doing the most important job on the planet: creating and raising our future.

Ways mothers can slow down and connect with their baby while pregnant:

1) Talk to your baby.  Respond to movement.  Remember there's a little person in there and they are more aware then you can imagine.

2.) Get prenatal massage.  Getting massage relaxes you and benefits your baby.  I got massaged throughout my pregnancy and my baby even got gently massaged.  Make sure you go to someone trained in prenatal massage.

3.) Go to yoga.

4.) Play music for your baby

5.) Be conscious of what you eat. Your baby can taste through the amniotic fluid.  Feed yourself and your baby yummy nutrient dense foods.

6.) Avoid stress, fighting, drama etc as much as you can.  Remember that everything you experience your baby does also.

7.) Relax.  Even if things in your life aren't perfect (which no one's is) just try your best to create a harmonious life and refer back to number 1...talk to your baby.  Explain situations and let your baby know that the way you are feeling has nothing to do with them.

With so much love,

xoxo

Nancy

This article was inspired by a workshop I attended with Myrna Martin.