Posts Tagged ‘pregnancy’
Parenting is a daunting safari into the unknown. It is a safari that will routinely lead you beyond the reach of the techno-savvy that has us convinced we can figure out and control everything in our lives. So for many, it’s a safari into parental anxiety.
What can you do about parental anxiety? Develop your own personal anxiety antidote: TRUST. A powerful antidote for parental anxiety, trust connects you to an unparalleled source of strength, paradoxically called “surrender”–perhaps the most important resources in your parenting toolbox! Along with a good supply of onesies, I counsel expectant parents to invest in and actively build their “trust fund.”
I define trust as “calm reliance upon processes outside of your immediate perception and control”; it is one of the seven principles that weave through my book Parenting for Peace. For those of us weaned on the information revolution, trust is probably the most subversive P4P principle of them all. When it isn’t overwhelming us, our instant access to infinite amounts of data on any topic has us convinced that by virtue of our techno-savvy, we can indeed figure out and be in charge of every aspect of our lives.
But Life will always manage to outrun your techno-management, trust me.
Prevent Parental Anxiety: Build Your “Trust Fund”
Begin now, I tell new parents, to cultivate a fond taste for mystery and the unfathomable. (more…)
Tags: anxiety, digital-dependence, faith, handheld devices, pregnancy, smartphones, surrender, technology, trust
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The moment a guy first learns that his partner is pregnant — that he is going to become a father! — is momentous. For some, it sets off a riotous pinball cascade of doubts, fears, pride, excitement. For others, the inner landscape goes utterly silent. You get my point — it’s huge.
And yet, aside from a congratulatory slap on the back… a “Nice going” wink-wink… this new landscape an expectant father has just entered goes largely ignored. {Read more at mothering.com}
Tags: fathers, hormones, men, pregnancy
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Gone are the days when we could consider pregnancy a 9-month “grace period” before the job of parenting begins. Mounting research tells us that lifelong wellbeing, including mental health, begins in the womb, and everything parents do – beginning even before conception — shapes their children in critical, life-altering ways.
I began 2013 by writing about the power of beginnings. In 2014 I invite us to recognize that this applies to virtually everything, from baking a pie to building a company to developing a human: the beginning contains within it the seeds of the project’s ultimate success…or less-than-success. {Read more at naturalbabypros.com}
Tags: autism, brain development, fetal origins, oxytocin, pregnancy, prenatal development, prenatal epigenetics, stress
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It was my pleasure and honor to participate in a Blessingway ceremony for Kristin, a member of my mountain community whose baby is due this fall. As I watched her sitting in her chair of honor…like a goddess on her throne…and we showered her with our womanly care in various ways — massage, braiding & adorning her hair, laying hands on her belly — I thought about the biochemical messages her baby was receiving during those lovely hours: I am loved… I am celebrated… the world is a safe, nurturing and caring place.
I was reminded of Michel Odent’s phrase, “the function of JOY in pregnancy.” It has a blessed function and a scientifically supported one: to build the baby’s brain in a way to be prepared to thrive and succeed! To read more about pregnancy as “Nature’s Head Start Program,” check out my article on mothering.com.
Photo by Mary Ann Halpin
Tags: blessingway, joy, Michel Odent, pregnancy, prenatal stress
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Mothers, some of the most potent parental influence you will have on your child takes place while he or she is still in your womb — so let’s hope that most of your days while pregnant are Happy Mother’s Days! While you are pregnant, your baby’s organs and tissues develop in direct response to lessons they receive about the world. These lessons come from your diet, your behavior and your state of mind — thereby hinting at the function of joy in pregnancy.
If there is chronic stress in pregnancy, if a pregnant mother’s thoughts and emotions are persistently negative, if she is experiencing unrelenting anxiety, the internal message — delivered to the developing baby — is, “It’s a dangerous world out there,” regardless of whether or not this is objectively true. The baby’s neural cells and nervous system development will actually mutate (adapt) to prepare for the unsafe environment it perceives it is going to be born into. {Read the rest of this post at mothering.com}
Images:
emilianohorcada under a Creative Commons license
Tags: adhd, fetal brain development, Mother's Day, pregnancy, prenatal development, stress
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Gone are the days when we could consider pregnancy a 9-month “grace period” before the job of parenting begins. Mounting research tells us that lifelong wellbeing, including mental health, begins in the womb, and everything parents do – beginning even before conception — shapes their children in critical, life-altering ways.
I began 2013 by writing about the power of beginnings. This applies to virtually everything, from baking a pie to building a company to developing a human: the beginning contains within it the seeds of the project’s ultimate success…or less-than-success. (more…)
Tags: autism, brain development, fetal origins, oxytocin, pregnancy, prenatal epigenetics, stress
Posted in Parenting for Peace | 3 Comments »
The brain development needed to equip an individual with the kinds of qualities needed for peace and prosperity — self-regulation, creative innovation, mental flexibility, robust will — begins during pregnancy, and it isn’t just diet and lifestyle choices that influence it. A pregnant woman’s thoughts and moods have a significant impact upon the brain development of her baby in the womb.
Stress in pregnancy is associated with a daunting list of bad outcomes, but some basic “perception hygiene” can help pregnant moms navigate this reality. While I’m confident that scientists will soon “prove” what so many wisdom traditions and cultures have long known about the role of joy in optimally prenatal development, what we do now know for sure is that a pregnant mother’s chronic stress has enduring negative effects upon the developing fetal brain. (more…)
Tags: ADD, fetal brain development, pregnancy, prenatal epigenetics, stress
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It’s hard to think of a baby being violent or destructive, but the seeds of violence may be planted before a child is born, according to research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
Research carried out there and reported last fall in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior suggests that attention to health factors during prenatal development could prevent violence in later life. Citing recent research demonstrating a biological basis of crime, article author and Penn nursing assistant professor Jianghong Liu explains, “‘Biological’ does not mean only genetic factors, but also health factors, such as nutritional deficiency and lead exposure, which influence biological processes.”
To read more, please see rest of post at mothering.com.
Source:
ScienceDaily
Tags: epigenetics, pregnancy, prenatal development, prenatal epigenetics, violence
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A mother’s attachment to her baby often begins long before birth. By the last trimester many mothers feel like they know their babies, having been enjoying for months their familiar, reassuring movements in the womb.
But what about fathers? What are their experiences during those wondrous nine months? How does the attachment process begin for them? Is a father’s only option to look on with wonder (and sometimes envy) at the beautiful relationship forming between his once-doting partner and this tiny interloper? 
Is it the extent of his calling to act as back-rubber, chauffeur and coach? Do these “staff support” roles reflect the monumental potential influence fathers have in their family’s life? (more…)
Tags: attachment, fatherhood, fathers, hospital birth, oxytocin, pregnancy, prenatal development, testosterone
Posted in Parenting for Peace | 4 Comments »
