The Prenatal Origins of Health
How Movement Shapes Development in Utero and Throughout Life

By Stephanie Mines, PhD | Prenatal Health

ABSTRACT

The theoretical basis of the prenatal origins of health has been researched and documented for over three decades, including findings by the International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). With the emergence of the study of epigenetics, this research expanded exponentially, adding a thorough description of the roles of methylation and chromatic modification. These discoveries increased the awareness of the enduring effects of adverse fetal, infant, and childhood environments.

It is now clear that epigenetics influence modifies DNA itself (Gluckman, et al, Effect of in utero and early life conditions on adult health and disease, N Engl J Med, 2008; 359(1), 1-73). What is significantly less documented, and what this paper intends to shift, is the embryo’s ignition of the essential hormonal communication between mother and baby that initiates key sequencing through human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG), estrogen, oxytocin and progesterone.

Embryonic movement is the expressive avenue of communication in utero and throughout early development. The mother’s responses to these signals establishes the shaping physiology and structural integrity that will be influential throughout life. Mother’s hormonal responses to baby maintain the quality of the uterine lining that is the very nature of felt, living support for baby. Oxytocin plays a central role in the prenatal period, as well as postnatally. It influences every aspect of the mother-baby bond.

Out of this singular relationship between mother and baby comes the production of thyroid hormones that secure baby’s brain development. Mother’s brain is similarly deeply changed by this reciprocity and dyadic attunement. The feto-placental unit (FPU) is a major site of protein and steroid hormone production and secretion. It is obvious how the baby and mother are impacted by a deficit of oxytocin that would result from the mother’s stress levels and overall mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

Through their somatic attunement, beginning at conception, the mother-baby relationship is the basis of all future development and health at every level of existence. While the father plays a genetic and epigenetic role, he is hormonally less influential once baby is conceived. Mother is the conduit of all embryonic development and it is through her body that new life emerges. This demonstrates the power and necessity of supporting healthy mother and baby bonding during pregnancy, during labor and delivery and in the postpartum period.

Women have the capacity to comprehend the very origins of life through their sensitivity to their sensations and their observations of baby’s development within their bodies. This is the most expert position for understanding optimum health and wellbeing. Responsiveness to in utero movements generates the data for understanding the emergent being, and supporting and sustaining her life and resilience. While observations are, of necessity, highly individuated, there are nevertheless universal functions, like activity levels, feeding, interaction and engagement, that mother can track through movement observations and that she can support at every stage of development. These are collated as the essential building blocks of health.

This paper demonstrates how the social engagement system of the twelve cranial nerves, in particular, informs interaction and communication. This system, including the Polyvagal System, is activated or inhibited by the mother-baby bond, or lack thereof. Maternal biology informs the entire development of every human being, making women the natural leaders in understanding health and healthcare.

Supporting, valuing, emphasizing and listening to mothers is the key to healthy society. When this awareness is threatened, such as when services and research about pregnancy and early development are eliminated or short-changed, the warning sounds of the dissolution of civilization are loud and clear. This paper aims to educate at the grassroots level so that women can lead and reach out to others for healing in community, uplifting awareness and engagement in regenerative health practices.

EMBRYONIC MOVEMENT DURING THE FIRST TRIMESTER

MOVEMENT BEGINS VERY EARLY IN UTERO AND IS A CONSTANT. MOVEMENT SHAPES THE DEVELOPING NERVOUS SYSTEM AND NEUROLOGY. THE MOST SIGNIFICANT MOVEMENTS ARE HEAD ROTATIONS, EYE MOVEMENTS AND RESPIRATION.

THE OCCIPUT AND THE CRANIUM, BOTH STRUCTURALLY AND NEUROLOGICALLY, ARE FORMED FROM THE PRENATAL BABY’S RELATIONSHIP TO ITSELF AND TO ITS ENVIRONMENT. THE RECIPROCITY BETWEEN THE BABY AND THOSE OUTSIDE THE WOMB INFLUENCES PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT AS SIGNIFICANTLY, IF NOT MORE SIGNIFICANTLY, THAN THE WAY IN WHICH THESE RELATIONSHIPS ARE INFLUENTIAL POST-NATALLY.

— Stephanie Mines

Movement is virtually a constant and is a response to the intrauterine environment throughout pregnancy, but especially during the first trimester when there is so much room for movement. Some movements are harbingers of postnatal activity, particularly head rotation, eye movement, hand-face contact, and respiration. All breathing movements create the maturation of lung tissue.

Fetal motility is the first step in the creation of prenatal neurology. Assessment of prenatal motility reveals the condition of the fetal nervous system. In order to evaluate healthy movement, awareness of normal fetal motility is essential.

FETAL RESPONSIVENESS: STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS

Chicago radiologist Jacob Birnholz has compiled over 50,000 fetal sonograms that reveal two significant things. The first is that embryos feel and express their feelings. They cover their ears when they are exposed to loud sounds and cringe when those sounds are threatening. They cringe and express pain. They cry when they are hungry. (Birnholz, J. C., Science, 1981; Grassi, R., Gynecologic and Obstetric Imaging, 2005).