Pregnancy: Loving Someone You Don’t Know Yet

A pregnancy lasts nine months. Nine months in which two hearts are connected by an umbilical cord, two worlds in one, in which something wonderful happens that is still unknown at the same time. Believe it or not, our emotions can break the placenta to caress our future baby.

Interestingly, while people worry about buying a crib, baby clothes, and whether the mother is eating well during pregnancy, few people consider the impact that stress can have. According to several scientists, during pregnancy we tend to completely overlook the emotional world of the mother, which can seriously influence the development of the fetus.

Pregnancy is a mystery and a source of hope: it means loving someone whose face we have never seen. It involves trying to imagine what his laughter will sound like and what color hair he will have, as we stroke his shape through the mother’s skin, trying to convey our genuine affection.

Vivette Glover, a specialist in perinatal psychobiology at Imperial College London, developed a theory known as “Emotional education from the womb .” A very interesting and important theory that we would like to share with you.

The importance of our emotions during pregnancy

Until recently, it was thought that the mother’s emotional world would have no influence on the development of the fetus. However, this turns out to be a mistake. Studies, such as the one published in New Parents Support magazine, show that the ‘magic intrauterine package’ is actually very receptive to outside emotions, especially during the fourth month of pregnancy.

The media, society and families themselves often praise the splendor of a pregnancy with great praise. The importance of coming into contact with the baby through the body and our emotions is hardly ever considered. While our emotions can have so much influence.

When emotions go beyond the placenta

Vivette Glover, also a specialist in gestalt therapy, emphasizes the importance of caring for the mother in a more comprehensive way.

Ultrasounds and blood tests are not enough, she says. It is also necessary to take good care of the emotional state of the mother.

dr. Glover conducted a study involving 14,000 pregnant women. During this study, the stress and anxiety levels of these women were measured. The follow-up study lasted five years and looked at how the children of these women grew up and developed.

This study found that the children whose mothers experienced a lot of stress during pregnancy were twice as likely to have hyperactivity. When a mother is in a stressful situation, the hypothalamus releases a hormone known as CRH, which causes the adrenal glands to secrete cortisol.

The placenta acts as a kind of filter, preventing the cortisol, which is seen as a ‘toxin’, from breaking through the placenta. However, in the event that the CRH level is very high, the cortisol can often break through the placenta and thus reach the fetus directly, putting the fetus in an ‘alert’ state.

Emotional education from the womb

You don’t even know your child yet and yet you already start to see the world differently and your weaknesses have turned into your strengths. It is important to know that a child’s education begins while he is still in the womb – the place where children are comfortable, but not isolated. A place in which they are not only very receptive to the outside world, but also the inner world.

Therefore, it is important that every mother and every parent takes into account the following very important aspects:

• Rephrasing Certain Concepts: You’ve probably heard someone say ‘the child is especially important, he’s worth all the sacrifice’ . The baby is indeed important, but we must also take care of the body and heart of the person who gives birth: the mother.

• Every pregnant woman has a certain way of life: some women have become pregnant unexpectedly, others find their pregnancy confronting because they have had an abortion in the past. It is necessary to pay exceptional attention to each case, to be aware of our reality and to face it with integrity and much support.
• Take it easy, prioritize yourself, surround yourself with positive stimuli: change the pace of your days and focus on the present moment, to strengthen your bond with your partner and share beautiful moments together, to get excited and be able to deal with the changes in your body in a normal way.
• Try out new therapies: Today there are a lot of different workshops on the emotional education of children during pregnancy. But mindfulness, yoga, massaging your stomach while you are calm or listening to music can also offer a lot of benefits for both the mother and the fetus.

Feed children with love and thus starve their fears

The emotional education of children is essential. This can be achieved by fostering their growth with the warmth of love and unconditional support. Read more.