Does the period before birth really influence our lives?1
We now know that each stage of our lives influences the subsequent stage. Psychiatrists have demonstrated it, and we have all had the opportunity to observe this in our lives and in the lives of those around us.
This now obvious fact is the result of a long process of development.
During the first half of the 20th century, advances in the study of deeply rooted behavior patterns revealed the influence of early childhood emotional experiences and their impact on the way an individual behaves.
For instance, if an emotional block has its origins at this stage in someone's life, the consequences can be lifelong, unless a psychotherapist is able to help their patient access and resolve the pertinent issue and thereby remove the block. , or that extremely favorable circumstances, such as a very happy marriage or professional success, allow aspects related to the issue to be experienced by the person in a positive way. Thus, new forces come into play to help that person overcome this blockage and finally release the life forces that were clogged from childhood.
On the other hand, if a young child receives enough love, and is recognized as a human being with inherent value in that condition, if his or her development naturally and gradually moves towards independence, the chances are great that he will become a teenager and an adult balanced, serene, happy and confident in himself, in others and in life. If he has the freedom to live and express his essence, then he will become a stable, open and creative person.
In the 1970s, new advances took place when obstetricians such as Frédéric Leboyer and Michel Odent, and psychoanalysts and psychiatrists around the world, drew attention to the great journey of birth and the quality of the way a new being arrives in this world, and to the fact that they are capable of producing deep marks on the psyche. They believe that 90% of our fears originate in the moments that surround our birth, and this stage, therefore, is decisive for our behavior in childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
We then went on to examine the evidence to suggest that the prenatal period should be considered as one of the stages that has the power to influence the future life of the “new individual”.
Based on these ideas, could an embryo or fetus be influenced or educated? What long-term effects would this have?
What kind of education is this? Can we create rules and program the development of a human being? Obviously not. Rules and schedules are about instruction, not education.
The purpose of instruction is to transfer knowledge and experience. It is based on learning methods.
Education, in turn, aims to facilitate the awakening of faculties that are latent in an individual, and involves physical, emotional, intellectual, moral and spiritual aspects.
Thus, education can be defined as “the implementation of methods that allow a human being to form and develop”. In fact, a person is capable of educating himself, that is, he is able to model and develop himself from the movement of vital forces that exist within him. She achieves this through physical, emotional and mental elements provided to her by those around her and her environment.
In a child, education involves three essential processes: impregnation, imitation and experimentation. Obviously there is no experimentation for a baby in the womb, and there is probably no imitation either. Opportunities for impregnation, however, are ample. This is the stage where our cells begin to be programmed. Life experience certainly leaves marks, but those marks only overlay the foundation that has already been formed. This shows the importance of this initial impregnation and the foundations that are formed at this early stage of human development.
Prenatal education, therefore, is neither an invention nor an ideology created by someone. It is, rather, the combination of all the natural processes involved, whether or not we are aware of them, or whether we like them or not.
Our suggestion is that these findings be disseminated, so that future parents, with knowledge of these facts, have the freedom and opportunity to provide the embryo, and then the fetus, with the best bases and conditions for its development, respecting its natural process and its own dynamics, in order to facilitate the development of the potentials and qualities contained since the beginning of their formation.
We are often asked who is involved in prenatal education: mother or child? And the answer is: both. Because the symbiosis between them is such that everything the mother experiences the child will experience with her. The mother, as the first universe of the new being, represents physical and psychological raw material for him. She is also your intermediary with the world. The child in the womb cannot experience the world directly, but it does so through the mother's sensations, feelings, thoughts, in her interaction with the world. In the development of its psyche, in its tissues and in its organic memory, the new being in formation registers these shared experiences, which will set the tone of its personality.
1 Free translation of the text by Marie-Andrée Bertin, founder of OMAEP, available at <https://anepbrasil.wordpress.com/o-periodo-anterior-ao-nascimento-influencia-mesmo-nossas-vidas/>;, accessed on December 28, 2021)
