"Pregnancy is a key time for women and their partners to take control of their own health and a unique opportunity to give the next generation the healthiest start. As a pediatrician, I believe that all parents-to-be deserve to be taught about what matters, to have the best pregnancy experience possible" (Alan Greene, pediatrician). Nice quote. I would change "to be taught" to "to learn." It's a change of emphasis from the passive to the active, from "being taught" to "learning," from being given information to finding it on your own, the only way to really ever learn anything. The start of pregnancy is a marvellous opportunity for parents to make a new start; to decide what they want to do with their health, while giving their baby the best possible start in life. While doing this, a mother or father-to-be can literally take decisions that will affect his or her longevity. For certain people, the idea of having a baby can elevate the spirit wonderfully. In others it makes them more aware of the greenery on the other side of the street or country or sea.
This May has been designated Pregnancy Awareness Month and advocates are encouraging women to ask questions about their pregnancy, to actively participate in the creation of their baby's birth plan, and, as a follow-up, to interview pediatricians to find the correct fit for themselves and their babies. Among many other things, it is critically important for pregnant women to educate themselves about the role toxins play in the health of babies. Questions that need to be answered are: how does the environment impact your health and that of your baby? Alcohol? Cigarettes? Mercury? Bisphenol A? Lead? Insecticides? What are the ingredients used to manufacture swaddling blankets, bath towels, toys, baby gear, diapers? Parents have the responsibility to constantly seek the answers, not only from the health professionals but from other sources. Parents-to-be need to challenge themselves to look at all decisions from all angles and possibilities; to question. Every week of the pregnancy should demand a question? That is the challenge. Why are paediatricians so interested in something called Pregnancy Awareness Month?
Apart from being the most open-minded and public education oriented of the medical specialties, and, indeed, having a vested interest in a successful pregnancy outcome for child, mother and father, I should remind you that pregnancy lasts 18 months. John Bowlby's attachment theory suggests that the foetus and infant represent a continuum. Bowlby was an English child psychiatrist who, together with Canadian psychologist Mary Ainsworth, after studying homeless and orphaned children after World War II, developed the idea that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver, usually the mother, for social and emotional development to occur normally in the long term. Infants become attached to adults who are sensitive and responsive with them, and who remain as consistent caregivers for the first months of extra uterine life. In pregnancy, the first nine months are spent inside the mother, the second nine outside the womb but within the embrace of the mother and at her breast. The only reason the child is born after nine months pregnancy is because of the size of the brain. Any further growth of the head and all babies would die inside the womb, with their mothers.
A newborn infant is hopelessly immature and really comes out too early. At birth, they are still foetuses and for the next three months they want little more than to be carried, cuddled, and made to feel like they are still in the womb. The difference between a newborn baby and a three-month-old is astounding. Even more so is the difference between a three-month-old and an active sitting, standing, expressive nine-month-old. In the womb the child is attached to the mother through the placenta and umbilical cord and this is the way the child is nourished with oxygen and food, waste products are eliminated and the child is protected from infection and harm. In the same way, with the exception of breathing and excretion, the mother can be con- sidered the womb, the breast an external placenta, the nipple a truncated cord. The breast continues the job of feeding and protecting the child and it can do this all by itself for at least six months and in many cases up to nine months. The other reason to consider that pregnancy lasts 18 months is psychological. During the first nine months after birth, The child does not know that she is a separate individual from the mother. The child has no sense of personal identity. She is one with her mother. She is her extension. The roots of personal identity date from about eight to nine months and reach a hurtful detaching peak around two to three years, as anyone who has had to leave a two-year-old in a day care for the first time will confirm.
