From the womb to the world: The MotherBaby. Connecting with baby

Why does it matter how we are born? A motherbaby’s journey is important. You might wonder why I use the term motherbaby instead of saying the mother and the baby. It helps create a visual of the togetherness and bond they share. This togetherness begins in the womb and continues once a baby is born. In this column I will share many different aspects of this journey. I will provide information, ideas, tips and maybe even challenge your thinking. Everyone is born into this world and what happens at birth, and even before, can greatly impact our whole being and wellness as we grow and develop. It can impact us as adults, our children and even our grandchildren. There are some fun and fascinating things to learn. I hope you will come along with me as I share what I have learned along the way.  

Did you know that we come into this world, wide-open to receive love? When we receive it, as our first experience, our limbic system is programmed with a sense of well-being. When we are first held in our mother’s loving arms and nursed, it provides us with a natural sense of bliss and security; it sets the world as the right place for us to be.

During fetal development and as an infant grows the limbic system and cortex continue to add connections based on what is happening with and around the baby. While we may not have specific memories of this time the echoes of these sensations’ lives in the body throughout the rest of our lives, whether we realize it or not.

The developing brain is divided into five lobes. The innermost of these is the limbic lobe, which is responsible for our emotions, sensations and feelings. The limbic system is a complex set of structures. It includes the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and several other nearby areas. It is primarily responsible for our emotions and has a lot to do with the formation of memories. The limbic system registers all of our sensations and feelings.

Neuroscientists have discovered the timetable for development of the entire nervous system. For example, studies show that the sense of taste begins functioning around fourteen weeks after conception, and the sense of hearing around twenty weeks. Researchers found that after only eight weeks of gestation, stroking the baby's cheeks, in the womb, with a fine hair produced a reaction. During gestation, all the structures are set in place that will enable the newborn to use the sense of smell as well as any adult. A host of scientific discoveries provides formal verification of what many parents and grandparents have known all along; newborns are real persons.

There are many things that parents to be can do while baby is in the womb to connect. I encourage parents to sing, read and talk to baby. They will hear and recognize a parent’s voice. Music, which is a pre-linguistic language, helps prepare the ear, body and brain to integrate sounds as well as helps lower stress. Mothers should be supported and encouraged to take time to relax and learn coping techniques, this will also help lower the stress hormones in the baby.

As Jeannine Parvati Baker said “Peace on earth begins with birth”. Let’s support all mothers, babies and families to have the best start in life.