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PRENATAL AND PERINATAL EDUCATION SERIES - ARTICLE 6 CULTURAL IMPACT OF PRENATAL AWARENESS

PRENATAL AND PERINATAL EDUCATION SERIES - ARTICLE 6
CULTURAL IMPACT OF PRENATAL AWARENESS
- Shivakumar Belavadi, PPNE, Bangalore, India

TOPIC - In your own words, name why this early period, if done with support and consciousness, can lay the groundwork for peace and love OR if done without consciousness, can be the foundation for a violent culture.

Human journey is fascinating. But it is not fully understood or appreciated. The beginnings are in the realm of spirit, but the enactment in the world of humans. I shall attempt a simple construct in developing this model.

Consciousness, Awareness, Knowledge and Purpose

Human form descends from the Spiritual domain. This is alluded to often as the Spirit World, Pure Energy, Abstract Intelligence or Universal Consciousness. In the world of Pre and Perinatal Psychology, senior practitioners like Thomas Verny, William Emerson, Ray Castellino and Wendy McCarty have reckoned this as an absolute ingredient and made this a part of their practice. This is generally acknowledged and accepted in evolved circles.

Universal Consciousness or Pure Energy emerges as Human Beings. In the primal form within the Human Domain, it is full of and brims out as Love, Empathy, Care and Compassion. These in turn present themselves as Innate Social Tendency. Apart from making social contact a foundation of human life, this factor gives meaning and purpose to human existence.

Origins of Human Life Patterns

The way an individual child is introduced and exposed to the world is through the funnel of Parental Knowledge, Behaviour, Transactions and Experience. The child in the embryonic and foetal states takes is fully sentient and takes in inputs from the parents. So what parents do and how they interact with others – interse between themselves or the family, society and the world is completely absorbed by the child in the womb. The reinforcement of these happens from the time of birth to the early period of life including Infancy. Thus the blueprint of what to follow in life as a human being is made out by Prenatal, Perinatal and Infancy Experiences.

It is hence evident that a child closely follows and takes up the Physical, Emotional/Feelings and Psychic patterns of mother and father. These get reinforced in society as the child grows and adapts into the real world. Hence what is ingrained into the baby, reflects   in the course of life. What you sow is what you reap !

Role of Parents, Family and Society in the formative phase

The close family – parents / care givers and society have a vital role to play in the development of the child. They reflect their awareness, understanding and consciousness into a child during the formative phase. Hence prenatal and perinatal bonding, attachment and healthy relationships built on awareness and consciousness is what makes the process of parenting a powerful phenomenon.  This is at the root of a family and social structure. Such knowledge is essential for parents, caregivers and members of civil society.

Parental and Societal Support and Influences in the course of Life.

As the child grows it needs support and appropriate nurture. A child is innately social and is a learner. Learning is a natural occurrence. But there is an implicit duty of parents and society in teaching a child of how to learn and explore. But for that - A parent in turn has to be first empowered! Society in turn has to support such empowerment.

If you are a loving person and you teach a child to love - the child loves. So it goes with compassion and care. Teaching has to be at all levels – Body (touch, holding, playing), Emotions (feelings, pain/pleasure, ups and downs) and Mind (perception of good/bad, values and ethics) . Give a child well rounded inputs and engagements so that it grows into a good human being – loved and giving out love; wanted and hence wants to give unto others!

If proper nurturing is not done with consciousness from the roots, the child develops without proper bonding or attachment. Without consciousness of who I am as a parent, who the child is, how we transact with each other and how we all link up in society and the world, as the child grows up the world becomes a terrible place to live and express oneself in. This could lead to the child growing up with a sense of ambivalence, loss or abandonment. It makes the child vulnerable and predisposes the child towards violence and aggression.

The core reflects the foundation or the roots of existence and its final manifestation as either Harmony, Peace, Love or Symmetry on the one hand Or  on the other hand as Discord, Violence, Aggression or Asymmetry.  This may appear to be a simplistic construct. There may be other contributory factors and finer aspects to be reckoned.

A visual diagram is appended below.