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Healthy Brains Begin Long Before Birth
BY ARLENE F. HARDER, MA, MFT
"It is not economical to go to bed early to save the candles if the result is twins."
—Chinese Proverb
As I say in The Parenting Game, parenting isn’t for wimps. But you will have an easier time if you can enter into the experience with a commitment to the gift of life that will be your child.
The Amazing Growth of the Brain During Pregnancy
If you could see how the brain grows during pregnancy, you would be more aware of how it needs good nourishment throughout it's development. Just imagine, at times during brain development, 250,000 neurons are added every minute! Check out Brain Development for sketches of the developing brain.
But why does a newly developed ear cell end up being in the ear and not in the brain, or a stomach cell not become a toenail? I've always been amazed that cells have the ability to become what they become. Fortunately, there is an article that helps explain why that happens. It is titled How Does a Cell Know What It’s Supposed to Be?. It's part of the articles on Embryological Development you may find quite interesting.
What Can You Do Before Conception?
According to Olive Morton, Ph.D., neonatal specialist, the best chance you have for having a healthy child and fewer problems in parenting may depend on what you do in planning for conception. She encourages anyone who is considering parenthood to “make a conscious and socially responsible choice to have a child—which includes commitment to caring, dedication to the required hours of time and energy, and the desire to guide and nurture your wanted new family member for as long as needed.”
Such a commitment is in contrast to what can happen if you are having a baby primarily to save your marriage, because all your friends are having babies, or engage in unprotected sex. However, even if your baby’s birth wasn’t exactly a planned event, or if the circumstances around which conception took place were less than ideal, you can still acknowledge that you’re responsible for the health of your child’s brain and can meet that challenge.
Most of all, if you choose to have a child, one of the first things you can do for your baby’s brain is to have a healthy body at the time of conception. This will give you a better chance of having a healthy baby with a healthy brain, for your growing fetus needs the best nutrition you can provide in order for allow nature to build the structure of the brain so that nurturing will shape its function. [See How You Can Shape Your Child's Brain and Change the World.]
What foods should you, whether you're the mother-to-be or the father-to-be, eat to prepare your body for a baby? See Trying to Conceive? Five Changes to Make to Your Diet Now. The sooner you start eating well, the more likely you are to get pregnant. Foods and fertility are linked; by sticking with a balanced diet, you will boost your chances of conceiving and of having a healthy baby—whose brain will be ready for you to give him or her all the love you want to share.
What Can You Do to Have a Healthy Baby With a Healthy Brain?
In addition to making a commitment to parenting, here are some things that you can do during pregnancy to assist the growing embryo and fetus to develop positive neural pathways, according to Morton:
 Talk and sing to the expected new life in calm voices.
Express your love for, and truly wanting, this new family member.
Read out loud early childhood stories to the developing child.
Play music that has a 4x4 beat that matches the new baby’s heartbeat.
Express joy, laughter, respect, and compassion to one another.
Handle traumatic situations as calmly as possible.
Learn about yourselves and your own emotionally stuck areas, seeking the best way to heal yourselves, vowing that “the buck stops here”— that any negative family patterns will end with you and not be passed on to your children. [See the first parenting strategy, Have a Plan and Know Yourself .]
Here are some things you must avoid to the greatest extent possible because they can have a negative impact on the fetus’s developing brain:
Loud arguing or violence between the parents. The noisy angry voices and/or physical assaults can cause high anxiety and stress for the fetus. Watching violent movies or TV shows can have the same effect.
Mother’s chronic anxiety about being a parent, finances, or whatever may be bothering her may leave an imprint of anxiety on the expected baby’s brain cells.
Both parents (and certainly the mother) smoking, which creates hyperactivity for the fetus. Smoke in the womb stops the fetus’s ability to breath. This also increases anxiety feelings because of never knowing when the interruption will occur.
Alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription drugs, and even many over-the-counter drugs can cause irritation and hyperactivity in the fetus, and sometimes brain damage.
© Copyright, 2005, Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT
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