William at 20 weeks and 6 days, now 32 weeks

Hello everyone, today’s topic is an interesting conversation I had with my friend…yes… Anna. This conversation circled around the matter of if baby’s in the womb can identify or actually have some sort of affect from the thoughts the mother has or portrays within the time of growth. We got into this topic of interest so much that I decided to do a little research about it and see what will come about. Now, I am a first time mom-to-be so these talks really get me curious. If any of you guys are already moms or becoming one, or even simply are interested in this matter please read on and comment away.

While doing some research, I did start to think about a regular person’s body and emotional state as well. If we really think about it, generally speaking, all of our emotions, thoughts, and visuals affect us in a positive or negative one. One way or another it will take in some sort of reaction and produce it afterwards as well. Why would it not be the same way when a mother is carrying a child inside of her. This all began from me telling my friend that I personally don’t really talk to William as I would use external speech with others. I actually do it internally and it really sparked an interest in me to find out if those thoughts and conversations reach him or not. I found this article online that focuses more on the emotions that signal through our brains to the remaining of our bodies, although I really think that it does equal out to the same thing. Here is what the article http://www.naturalbabypros.com/article/375/a-mother%E2%80%99s-emotions-affect-her-unborn-child/ had to say;

“(A pregnant woman’s thoughts have a physical connection to her unborn child. “Everything the pregnant mother feels and thinks is communicated through neurohormones to her unborn child, just as surely as are alcohol and nicotine,” states Thomas Verny, MD. Dr. Verny’s books, professional publications, and founding of the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) and Pre- and Perinatal Journal, have established him as one of the worlds leading authorities on the effects of prenatal environment on personality development. He quotes numerous studies, saying research like that from Austrian obstetrician Emil Reinold “…proves that maternal emotions are transmitted physiologically as well.” Negative thoughts are often the root cause of the negative, fear-based stress response. Chopra states, “Stress activates the unborn child’s endocrine system and influences fetal brain development. Children born to mothers who had intensely stressful pregnancies are more likely to have behavioral problems later in life.” Verny agrees, “…studies show that mothers under extreme and constant stress are more likely to have babies who are premature, lower than average in weight, hyperactive, irritable, and colicky.” Cell biologist, neuroscience, and Stanford researcher, Bruce Lipton, PhD, sites six specific studies when he writes, “When passing through the placenta, the hormones of a mother experiencing chronic stress will profoundly alter the distribution of blood flow in her fetus and change the character of her developing child’s physiology.” Chopra writes, “When you are stressed, you release chemicals coded for stress, and every cell in your body receives the message.” Those cells include the growing fetus.)”

One day I was watching the movie Changeling with my mom which was actually the second time of me watching that film, although my second time was during pregnancy. If any of you have seen this film, it is pretty heavy on the heart and some scenes are also brutal. While watching this, I thought it was okay and that I was not feeling anything within those scenes, although my mom seemed to really get mad at me about it, at first I could not understand the reasoning behind it. Now that I really think about this portion of it, I could see why she was worried about me watching a heavy film. The things we see and the emotions we feel must be able to travel along to the fetus, it just has to in some transferable way. Sometimes we think certain things do not have an affect on us and then time passes by and BAM! you get treated for anxiety. Now yes, maybe it does not take affect at first but a continues routine can signal certain actions. I think my initial question in regards to baby’s listening in and being affected by our thoughts and words really gets me to believe that it is a huge possibility, even though it has not been proven to be just yet. I just don’t see how it could not be. If I were to think something negative in my head and this triggers a certain action in my body sending in the chemicals through my blood to the cord than how is it not possible for my internal conversations to be heard as well? internal conversation is a type of thought. I am starting to really question that theory. To be honest, I have heard many say that “you need to talk to your baby, it is important for them to know your voice, etc” although it just feels so strange to do so. He hears my voice in general all the time and so the recognition is there in a lighter way but I do find myself speaking to him internally and I hope that he could take in some of that. Speaking to him with my outside voice just feels really strange and awkward, I really hope that I am not the only one who feels this way. Believe me I have tried and right away shut myself because it felt silly to me.

On a side note, I do like to rub my belly and massage him along with playing piano music on Sunday mornings to sooth him and put him to sleep. I plan to continue this routine outside of my belly as well. I feel as if that is our bonding time and that is how I connect with my baby for now. He enjoys it, I guess it comes down to the mom and the baby to work out a beautiful bond/schedule. Everyone takes it differently whether it is mentally or physically.

This to me was an interesting rant, if you guys have any questions, concerns, or comments please don’t hesitate to comment or message. I will gladly be open to talk about it all.

Thanks for the read,

Love Vivi