The unborn child is aware of much more than we think. Unhappiness, fear or anger, but also feelings of happiness – nothing escapes the little ones so quickly. For example, if the mother’s blood pressure or heartbeat increases, more hormones or adrenaline are released, which the baby absorbs via the umbilical cord. The course of the pregnancy therefore plays an important role. Everything that happens to the baby in the nine months leading up to birth also affects the baby’s personality and how it feels about life.
Course of pregnancy affects child
“Lifetime in the womb is the origin of health and disease” – this is how U.S. physiologist Peter Nathanielsz describes a phenomenon that increasingly fascinates physicians and psychologists: “fetal programming.” Already in the womb – possibly under the influence of maternal hormones – the course for the child’s physical and mental health could be set. Studies showing more precise details are currently underway. But one thing is certain: development in the womb is more important than most realize.
Fetal Programming
“Fetal Programming” is a fairly new branch of medicine and means something like imprinting lifelong predispositions to disease while still in the womb. Never again in life do humans grow as fast as they do in the womb. This is why disorders during pregnancy can affect later health, such as the risk of developing obesity, diabetes mellitus or arteriosclerosis. What scientists initially only suspected could be proven by clinical studies: Those who are poorly nourished in the womb may have their health threatened for life. One example: If a baby is very small after birth, it is often because the mother was poorly nourished during pregnancy or even suffered from hunger. Studies also indicate that too much stress during pregnancy can cause increased stress sensitivity in the child for life.
Traces in the brain
A growing body of research findings suggests that drastic stress during pregnancy can leave lasting traces in the unborn child’s brain. For example, researchers found that stress hormones released by the mother in stressful situations can enter the unborn child’s metabolism and affect the developing brain of the unborn child. Not without consequences: prenatal stress can permanently impair the body’s stress regulation. German tanks that overran the Netherlands during World War II continue to show unimagined effects decades later – in those who were in the womb in May 1940. The children, still unborn at the time of the blitz invasion, were far more likely to develop diabetes, hypertension and schizophrenia later in life.
Babies empathize
Anxiety, anger, rejection, and stress have a negative effect on child development. For example, if the mother’s heartbeat speeds up because of stress, the baby’s will also double just a short time later. Severe anxiety or stress during pregnancy causes children to be born too small or too early. However, not all excitement during pregnancy is necessarily harmful to the child. Stress that is only mildly stressful does not harm the unborn child. Another comfort is also that a happy early childhood in a loving family can heal many wounds.
What is good for the unborn?
Already after conception, the expectant life begins to adjust to life with the mother and reacts to the influences to which it is exposed. The calmer, more balanced and contented the expectant mother is, the more favorable the developmental conditions are for the unborn, because security begins in the womb. Loving affection and the mother’s anticipation of the unborn child are positively transmitted to the child. By the sixth month at the latest, the unborn child senses vibrations, pressure and temperature, for example when the mother places her hand on her belly. The mother can therefore have a very direct influence on the emotional life of her child. A calm and normal heartbeat of the mother promotes sleep, but also soft music or twilight conversations of the mother with the baby, which the unborn child can already perceive. Signals, noise stimuli and annoying music, on the other hand, trigger the opposite reaction.
Conclusion
So, in summary, a mother can transfer stress to her child or consciously protect it from too much stress. Inner security, the ability to confront, but above all contentment and inner balance can strengthen the unborn child. Too much stressful stimuli is perceived by the child in the womb as stress, which can also harm it. The calming heartbeat of a balanced, content mother who is looking forward to her child promotes emotional and healthy development. So the most important thing for the child is to feel accepted, loved and wanted.
