Prenatal Parenting

“The power to create is one of the most divine attributes which man possesses. In his exercise of that power, he enacts microcosmically the great macrocosmic drama of creation. The fusion of the male and female organisms is a sacramental enactment of the great drama of the creation of the universe. When it is performed with the motive of pure and mutual love the two halves of God, as represented in man and woman, are united.” Geoffrey Hodson, 1929

For quite some time in the 20th Century, childbirth experts mistakenly believed that the placenta would protect a fetus from anything happening to the mother, and a newborn was considered a tabula rasa – a blank slate. Then, thanks to its understanding of epigenetics, science revisited this crucial chapter of our early beginnings and made discoveries that exposed mighty implications for the kind of adults prenates will become. Further discoveries in biochemistry, cell biology and neurophysiology have also revealed plenty about the complexity of our life before birth. For instance, hormones produced by toxic stresses endured by the pregnant mother influence the baby’s brain architecture and the placental vascular organization.

Neonatologist Jean Pierre Relier, editor of the prestigious Journal of the Neonate, wrote in 2001 about the fundamental importance of psycho-affective equilibrium at the time of conception – in each of the parents –for a healthy development of the embryo and placenta, which, in turn, prevents intrauterine growth retardation, prematurity, maternal hypertension, toxemia, and early miscarriage.

Thanks to pioneering popular books such as The Secret Life of the Unborn Child by psychiatrist Thomas Verny and The Mind of Your Newborn Baby, by psychologist David Chamberlain, little by little we have become more aware of what goes on in the mind of a prenate. For the last decades, Professor Bruce Lipton, a pioneering cell biologist, has been deciphering for the lay public, exquisite scientific research about the life of our trillions of cells. Especially revealing are Lipton’s elucidations as to how our cells take cues from their immediate environment to activate, or silence, particular functions and specific genes. From Harvard Medical school, we hear: “What goes on in the womb before you are born is just as important to who you are as your genes.” Indeed, epigenetic data infer that the health of a 50-year-old person depends more on the way she or he was formed in-utero than on eating and exercising habits.

Unfortunately, this understanding has not yet reached the public worldwide; in fact, at the dawn of the second millennium, few are familiar with the power of prenatal life. I first heard of it in 1976, reading a book of the Bulgarian spiritual teacher Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov. Nothing of the kind had ever been mentioned in my psychology classes at the Sorbonne, but to my amazement, I found out that for millennia innumerous traditions have emphasized the importance of conception, pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding for the betterment of societies. Even in the Vedas, the oldest known scriptures, conception is seen as the most important moment of one’s life. Few moments are more empowering and harbinger more freedom as the conscious conception of a child. Freedom to say YES to a cosmic collaboration and welcome the works of life in one’s body! Alchemists perceive the sperm as light in liquid state, gold being light made solid. What a gorgeous image to hold for this miraculous emergence of a human from the union of egg and sperm.

During the months leading to the conception of my child, I was aware that my body was to become a sacred vessel for the making of a new human body. My husband and I had posted an ad in the intergalactic web, stating who we were and what we could offer to a soul who would join us. We carried on our daily activities in a mood of solemn expectation and profound surrender: was a soul going to be drawn to us? On a clear and blossoming morning of May, I recall thinking: “Dear One, in case we are conceiving your physical body, we wish you a vast and luminous life.”

The formidable time of our formation before birth sets the stage for the way we relate to life. From the spiritual teachings of Rudolf Steiner in the early 1900s, we learn that "During pregnancy, the mother's joy and pleasure are the forces that provide her baby with perfect organs." The formation of a child in the womb is analogous to the way fruits grow on a tree. As everything matters inside and around that tree, every detail matters in the life of an expectant mother. And for a spirit, matter matters. Paracelsus, a European physician from the 16th century, wrote that “Woman is the artist of the imagination and the child in the womb is the canvas whereon she painteth her pictures.” I invite you to muse on the family of words “image,” “imagination,” “magus,” “matrix,” “matter,” “mama,” they all contain the root syllable “ma,” and in Sanskrit, “mama” is one the words for mother.

As I am writing these lines, I have in front of me a beautiful painting representing a human fetus in the spiraling shell of a nautilus; above, in silvery letters, I read the following invitation: “Parenting Your Baby Before Birth – Explore the Relationship.” Our relationship with our children begins when we start wanting them, dreaming of them, conceiving of them. In fact, prenatal parenting sets the tone for the kind of parent we become, for the way we’ll raise our children and accompany them throughout life. We draw strength, patience and determination, as well as inspiration, wisdom and love from a powerful start; children draw trust, balance and self-esteem.

In 2004, I was delightfully surprised when Harvard Professor of Religious Symbology, Dr. Langdon, addressed the young men of his class in the following terms: “The next time you find yourself with a woman, look in your heart and see if you cannot approach sex as a mystical, spiritual act. Challenge yourself to find that spark of divinity that man can only achieve through union with the sacred feminine.” True, Professor Langdon is a fictitious character in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, but my heart rejoiced when I saw this subject – so central to my life’s work – mentioned with such clarity in a runaway bestseller.

Somewhere in the last pages of his seminal book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill wonders what is germinating the future of our civilization… Well, I hope that all over the world, many great human beings are on their way to be born from conscious and harmonious pregnancies or have already been born from such pregnancies. I couldn’t agree more with Eleanor Luzes, a Brazilian psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, when she suggests that our times require the anthropological advent of Homo sapiens frater. As we need more individuals capable of altruism, who cherish and foster brotherhood on Earth. Luzes believes it is imperative for every high school and college around the globe to impart scientific and philosophical knowledge about the power to gestate babies who will grow up to be strong, caring, wise and creative individuals, aware of their kinship with all life. More than ever, we need people who embody lofty values, who use the power of their intelligence, the force of their love and financial wealth to bring Heaven on Earth. Even the best socio-economic and political measures will not be successfully implemented if we go on procreating the non-conscious way, ignoring the principles at work in conception, and in the womb. During pregnancy, a mother gives of her own substance for the formation of her child’s organs and mind. This child will walk the Earth expressing peace, wisdom and generosity—or indifference, rage, and fear. The power of giving birth to civilizations is the very power nature has assigned to pregnant women. Hope for a brighter future lies on the correct understanding of the role nature has assigned couples and pregnant mothers. It is up to all of us – fathers, families, communities, and nations – to support, empower and inspire each and every mother in her monumental endeavor of forming in her womb a healthy baby, a future adult who will be centered, intelligent, caring and creative. I often imagine beautiful parks filled with flowers, where pregnant women can walk admiring trees, statues and fountains… By day, the birds’ songs embrace them and by night, the stars entice them to visit distant worlds… In these parks there are houses where the mothers can sing, weave, embroider and paint, the arts and crafts of each community made available to them. There are also theaters, libraries, they can study, teach, meditate, laugh and cry. I remember Omraam saying that within fifty years, harmonious and conscious conceptions, pregnancies and breastfeeding, could redeem our species and enlighten the face of the world.

 

 

About the Author
Laura Uplinger is the Vice-President of ANEP Brazil (National Association for Prenatal Education). Since the late 1970s, she has been a proponent of the powerful influence of a mother’s inner life on the formation of her prenate. She often leads workshops and gives talks about prenatal parenting at conferences and webinars for birth professionals and the public at large in the Americas and Europe. She also addresses high schools and university students on the subject of prenatal and perinatal psychology. The name of one of her most effective workshops is "Pro Mundo Nascer Feliz" (For the World to be Born Happy).