We know that the way we treat our babies, infants and toddlers will have an impact later on their lives, in the way they develop physically, emotionally and intellectually. We also know that parents and close family members are the keys to social behavior as well. Now scientific research shows us that unborn babies are as vulnerable to their environment inside the womb as when they are outside the womb.

 

Unborn babies are conscious and sensitive beings. When exactly this consciousness starts we do not know, but there is amazing research in this field done in Japan by Dr. Akira Ikegawa, a pioneer on the research on "Prenatal Memory", that is a breakthrough.

 

Infants starting from ages 3 and 4 recall different memories of their moments from conception to pregnancy, and the Prenatal Memory Education Association in Japan state nine different categories of "Memory in the Womb and Beyond":

 

1. Prenatal memory - Memory from Embryo up to Birth
2. Birth Memory - Memory at Birth
3. Newborn / Infant /Toddler Memory - Memory from birth to mid toddler
4. Fertilization Memory - Memory at conception
5. Sperm Memory - Memory as a sperm
6. Ovum Memory - Memory as an egg
7. Life-Between-Life Memory - Memory from the end of the previous life to fertilization
*8. Past Life Memory - A memory as another person that lived in the past
*9. Duplicate Memory - Any combination of the memories from #1 to #8

 

It is important to say that the memories these babies recall are corroborated by their parents, as situations that happen during conception, pregnancy or labor, that they had never mentioned to their babies before.

Yuko Igarashi, the founder of the Prenatal Memory Global Project states that "recent research shows that babies remember all their memories in the womb as information containing within the form of the "Light" (elementary particles) and they record it. In the womb, the five senses are not fully developed. Babies remember this information as a whole and they cannot differentiate it into five senses as recognized by adults.

After the baby is born, various sensors go through the body, and it is believed that the information from the 5 senses is linked to the memories they had in the womb, overwriting them. That is how the baby can recognize the voice of the father or image of the father linked to the perception the baby had in the womb. "

 

We know that the physical, emotional and mental environment of the mother will influence the development of the baby, and also the way the mother is perceiving the environment where she is playing a big role in the development of her baby. The reaction of the mother introduces the baby to the outside world, the baby is perceiving what he or she should be prepared for through the mother inside signals.

Science of epigenetics can now confirm that we are not simply victims of our genetic background, and genes are not randomly activated, but they are switched on or off by an environmental trigger. This trigger can be nutrition, a toxin, an emotional impact good or bad, or stress. Even more, this environmental impact can lead to a definitive modification of a gene!

 

Geneticist Bruce Lipton states:

 “The activation of the programs of the genes is controlled by the atmosphere of the environment. More precisely by the perception, the organism has of this atmosphere...Maternal emotions as anxiety or anger or on the contrary love and hope influence biochemically the selection and the rewriting of the genetic code of the child in utero with very profound evolutionary consequences on future generations. Parents-to-be are real ‘genetic engineers’. It is urgent for them to be informed.”

 

The unconscious transmission of old patterns through the genealogy is studied by psycho-genealogy.  Accidents, failure, illnesses, unprocessed emotions, can be constantly repeated throughout the history family’s generations. To free oneself and the next generations of these repeating situations you need to take a closer look into your own self because your baby deserves the best start in life.

We can now understand how important it is the way the mother takes care of herself physically during pregnancy but also,  at the emotional level, the mother’s experiences and feelings are also shaping the psyche of her baby.

During pregnancy, the baby knows if he is loved or not through the endocrine system and the hormones of the mother that affect the biochemistry of the baby and create the same feelings as the mother. An unborn baby needs to feel connected, accepted and loved. Parents can help the baby by bonding from conception on and growing this bonding throughout pregnancy, communicating and accepting their baby sensitive awareness since the very start. Good attachment is only possible if the parents have been securely attached in their own past or if they were able to reprogram their psyche and neutralize negative impacts on a lack of bonding and connection.

An unborn baby needs to feel connected, accepted and loved. Parents can encounter this need by bonding from conception on. You talk to him as to a normal human being, letting him know that he is loved.

This will set the foundations of the baby’s sense of self-worth, self-love, connection and trust or mistrust, of the baby’s beliefs, attitudes, defense mechanisms, and even problems in future relationships.

 

Barbara Findeisen, a founding member of APPPAH - Association for Pre-and Perinatal Psychology and Health says: “There's something wonderful about people who have an original undamaged connection to themselves, from proper bonding and a good womb and birth experience. They have trust in life at a deep level. When there's a crisis they fall back to that sense of self and trust in the universe. Their context is trust and love.”

 

For 4 decades scientific research has been done in the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology and has shown the tremendous importance the pregnancy and the first years of the baby’s life, have later on either on the physical but also on the psyche level. For example hormones of stress created by the mother can disturb the normal development of organs in the baby in the womb and can have life long consequences on the physical health of the baby after birth.
This information puts a tremendous responsibility on the parents, but can also be seen as a great opportunity to influence and give their baby the best start. During pregnancy we should give time for the mother to love, nurture and share positive thoughts and feelings with her baby, inspiring the new universe inside of her. and inspiring feelings. We should be able to come up with good supporting teams that would help to ongoing stress and conflicts are reduced as much as possible to help both mother and baby.

Parenting starts before conception and educating new parents about the great responsibility of conceiving, gestating, birthing and educating a child is a step in the right direction and what we owe to the next generations.

 

About the Author

Susana Lopes is a prenatal educator, prenatal and post-natal yoga teacher, author of the book “Yoga e Maternidade” and President of the Norwegian Association of Prenatal Education.  She is also a speaker and advocate for pregnant moms and their conscious babies. Her present work includes guiding women to effectively release stress and anxiety from their body and improve their overall health and connection with their baby.