Any pregnant woman has been able to verify how her son reacted in her womb when she put her hand or when she was very restless. However, until just a couple of decades ago, it used to be thought that the fetus developed in the womb without feeling or suffering for nine months, as if it were just a handful of cells multiplying and growing at a dizzying rate.
“The child was considered, unfortunately even on a medical level, like some kind of benign tumor that the woman expelled at the end of the pregnancy,” says Enrique Blay, a graduate in developmental psychology and author of The emotional baby (Ed. Red Circle, 2006).
Fortunately, this conception has changed. And today we know, adds Blay, that “life does not begin at birth, but long before, and that the intrauterine baby is able to feel, experience and have emotions“.
What the fetus perceives and feels during pregnancy
The baby enjoys an intense emotional life throughout the gestation, and especially from the sixth monthas revealed by advances in biology and neurology, and the advent of 3D ultrasound.
The ear is the sense organ that first begins to function; in fact, from the age of four and a half months it is fully formed and information from the world around it reaches the baby, above all through the vibrations of its mother’s voice, which also transmits emotions and states of mind. cheer up.
Especially from the sixth month, the baby not only perceives what happens in his aquatic world, but is able to remember, hear, see, taste and smell, and even learn before birth.
All this knowledge leaves a deep imprint on the baby. Let it later be a sad or happy childWhether self-confident or anxious will depend to some extent on the messages you receive and learn in the womb.
The emotions of the mother influence those of the future baby
The maternal womb is our first home, it is where our psychological development and emotional education. Hence, for some time now, emphasis has begun to be placed on the need for the mother, in addition to leading a healthy lifestyle, to also take care of her emotional health.
Through numerous studies, it has been verified that, for example, a depressed, extremely stressed or distressed mother It can have a negative impact on your child’s emotional balance and predispose him to show greater vulnerability to hyperactivity or to attention deficit syndromeas well as other cognitive problems.
Instead, a happy and calm mother transmits serenity and well-being, love, tenderness, the essential ingredients for learning to love and knowing how to be loved, to establish healthy relationships and to build bonds with her mother. But how is all this possible?
Mood is transmitted through the placenta
To begin with, for a purely physical reason. During pregnancy, mother and child are in a state of symbiosis and continuous communication. The little one grows and develops in the womb of the woman and is attached to her by the umbilical cord, through which it receives blood with the nutrients it needs to develop. Besides, the mother’s blood contains messages about her state of mind.
The child perceives if she is happy, happy, sad, angry, since all the emotions she experiences are translated into biochemical substances: hormones and neurotransmitterssuch as oxytocin or cortisol.
These substances flood the mother’s body and pass to fetus through blood. Hence, he shares those emotions with his mother.
“Feeling and sensation should not be confused,” explains Anna Maria Morales, doula, certified lactation consultant and promoter of the Marenostrum family health center in Barcelona. “The baby does not feel depression or loneliness, for example, because they are complex mental constructs for which you are not neurologically mature. But he does have sensations, such as pleasure, satiety, satisfaction, alarm, startle, “he adds. All those sensations begin to modulate the baby’s emotional brain.
For the professor of psychology of emotion and motivation at UNED, and promoter of the NUK Baby Institute, Enrique Fernández, “all those chemical substances that cross the placenta and reach the unborn baby teach them to live with and also with They give you a wide range of registers with which to cope with life situations. And all of them are very necessary.”
Stress and anxiety during pregnancy: how they affect the fetus
Now, alert Morales, who has spent a lifetime dedicated to helping other women during pregnancy, childbirth and the first months with their children, if there is an emotion that can be harmful, it is stress and anxiety when they occur for a long time. , since the baby receives a continuous bath of neurotoxic hormonessuch as cortisol, which may end up affecting their development.
In numerous studies, many of them led by Vivette Glover, a psychobiologist at Imperial College London, it has been found that children exposed to high and continuous doses of cortisol are more prone to cognitive disorders -such as attention deficit and hyperactivity-, behavior problems and anxiety.
But the fact that a mother is stressed for a day or a season does not mean that her child is going to have cognitive problems, reassures Roser Nadal, a researcher at the Institute of Neurosciences and the Faculty of Psychology of the UAB. The impact depends on stress level, how sustained it is and how the mother lives it. “Whether the child develops disorders or not will also depend on the environment and her genetics.”
In addition, fortunately, the human brain has a unique property, cerebral plasticity, by which it is shaped based on the different experiences that occur in life.
Thus, Enrique Blay points out, a mother can make up for a stressful day by relaxing, taking breaths, trying to visualize your child and sending him messages of tenderness and love. In this way, the little one will be invaded by a pleasant sensation, of comfort, and will feel loved, which is the most important thing.
And it has been seen that A mother’s love is the most powerful protection During pregnancy.
Communicating with the baby in the womb
There is another way to bond with the baby and that is through the senses, especially hearing and touch. The fetus reacts to music and is capable of learning it; It has been observed that when parents sing a lullaby to them throughout the , at birth, they are able to recognize it. The mother’s voice is also key.
“When she speaks sweetly to him, it conveys that he is loved and desired. And that is very important for him. start building the “, says the perinatal psychologist Sara Jort. Obviously, the baby does not understand the words, but it is capable of perceiving the emotional tone of the maternal voice. caresses are essential.
From the seventh week of gestation, the baby can already feel the emotion and tenderness of their parents through touch. It is also through touch, movements, how the little one speaks and communicates with her parents. He sends them messages of joy, expresses his needs, his feelings and even his desire to play.
There are other channels of perception that, although they are not scientifically proven, have experimental and experiential evidence, insists Enrique Blay. For this psychotherapist “the baby can connect with what the mother thinks of her, with what she feels.” And there is a last channel, perhaps the most subtle, “that of the spiritual perception. The baby is able to establish a connection with her mother’s being, “says the expert.
The influence of childbirth
Birth is also a deep and intense emotional experience for mother and child. Hence, it is necessary to try to face the birth in such a way that it is a rewarding experience for both.
It is what as claimed Michel Odent, the prestigious French gynecologist pioneer in the promotion of physiological childbirth and forerunner more than three decades ago of dilation baths. And it is that everything that happens in this process, Odent points out, will be essential to later develop the capacity to love.
It’s fundamental do not disturb the moment of birth too much and that mother and son can develop that love. During childbirth, explains Anna Maria Morales, when it occurs naturally, a kind of biological ritual.
The mother secretes oxytocin which, in turn, generates a noradrenaline discharge in the child which, after birth, makes it remain alert, calm to begin to recognize the environment in which it has just been born. It is then that he looks at her mother and connects with her. He makes his first milk intake, enters a kind of lethargic period and begins to establish attachmentthat much-needed link.
3 ways to give love to your baby during pregnancy
The baby feels welcomed in the warm womb of its mother. You can enhance that feeling by communicating affection.
1. Touch and play
A gesture as common in pregnant women as it is rub the belly and seeking to touch the baby is one of the best ways to begin to bond and communicate with him. Putting your hands on your belly causes you to receive a positive sensory experienceof tranquility and confidence, which also connects him to his mother.
This influences their emotional development and begins to forge the foundations of attachment, essential to be able to establish healthy relationships. touch is also a good way for the father to establish early bonds with the baby. Also, during the last trimester of pregnancy, the baby responds to those touches and plays.
2. Caress with the voice
Talking to the baby is another way of communicating with him. The baby hears inside his mother’s tummy. And it is known that the first sound experiences in the maternal womb can have a stimulating effect. We can talk to the baby, sing to him, play calm music.
Babies who are spoken to by their parents in the womb are able to recognize their voices at birth and tend to be calmer children and to have a greater emotional connection with their parents.
When the father speaks to the baby in a loving tone, it makes him feel safe and calm. One hour after delivery the children to whom their father has spoken regularly during pregnancy they are able to recognize their voice. And they respond to it emotionally, because that familiar sound tells them that they are protected.
He father role it is also to protect, help, be there and create a safe environment for your partner so that you can connect with the baby and that it develops as well as possible.
3. Embrace with the mind
Thoughts also allow you to connect with the child and express love. The mother can sit quietly, take several deep breaths and try to visualize the baby, and then cuddle him, show him the love and sweetness that she feels towards him. that kind of motherly virtual hug it will make the baby feel safe, calm, protected and loved.