How the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of Your LifeThis is an interesting article on how a child's early life experiences affect ones health later in life. The title will link you to the article in Time Magazine. In your response try to incorporate the ideas we discussed in class.. cognitive emotional appraisal, copying, stress, learned helplessness. As the semester is coming to its peak you should be well on your way to using your sociological perspective. Always think in terms of the social structures which influence ones health.
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This article directly relates to our class discussions. It supports the ideas that we have predetermined health and lives shaped by society before we even leave the womb. It focuses on the way that stress during a pregnancy will effect the physiology of the child. The mother should cope with stress in positive ways, as eating unhealthily or using chemical substances will directly effect the fetus in a negative way. It can cause respiratory or heart problems if the mother uses bad substances, and poor nutrition will cause the baby to have a similar diet when they are born. Also, mothers should try to keep away from exhibiting learned helplessness and care for themselves or it may show strongly in their children. If a woman is depressed, emotional, or stressed it can allow for a possibility of unstable mental health in the fetus after birth.
I think this article is important to share with mothers everywhere, especially the many young mothers now who may not know the proper way to care for their bodies during pregnancy. Proper prenatal care for the mother will improve her own health as well as that of their child in the future, and will help lower infant mortality rates. It may also influence society to reconsider the dispersion of money in countries like the U.S., so mothers in every social class can have proper expenditures to protect and improve the future of all children.
Let me just start by saying, that I believe the study of fetal origins to be one of the most proactive and signifcant attempts to "refocus upstream" that I have encountered thus far in my sociological readings. It is an innovative approach that has zeroed in on the earliest interaction that a human has with the social and material environment, in an attempt to identify how, why, and when human qualities develop.
This article nicely complements the topics we have been discussing in class. It boldy suggests that "...the nine months of gestation constitute the most consequential period of our lives" and undoubtedly has the empirical data to back it up. An expectant mother can influence and shape her baby's future through: her overall health status, stress level, state of mind, pollutants and drugs she is exposed to, and by any infections she may have had. The information the author shares about a woman's stress response, is particularly relevant to our previous classroom discussions. The article states that a fetus' nervous system is shaped by its mother's emotional and mental state, which reinforces what we have learned about the pliability of a fetus' physiological reactivity and cognitive emotional appraisal. Additionally, a person's cognitive emotional appraisal and coping skills continue to be shaped after they are born by their parent's behaviors and social contexts. For example, children born to the women in the study who are more depressed and anxious, are likely to develop similar learned helplessness responses to stressors.
Overall, I think this article and the research that has spawned it need not only to be distributed to pregnant mothers of the present and future, but to society as a whole. The general public needs to understand just how early our health and future lifestyles are being influenced. With this knowledge, pregnant women can make the best decisions for their babies, and society can make the best decisions for these women and their unborn children.
I think that this study shows just how much unequal distribution of food and stress can affect our health. Since proper nutrition is crucial to the development of the fetus and under weight babies are at predisposed to heart disease in the future, those who cannot afford to eat properly are going to be most affected. Also the article talked about how stress and anxiety have a huge impact on the future health of the baby. Sociology has shown us the poorer people have a harder time coping with stress due to lack of resources and control. So again fetus' of poorer mothers are exposed to more stress. Poorer families are also much more likely to be living in an area with lower quality air. This also was shown to negatively affect the future health of a fetus. So clearly babies of mothers coming from poor families never really get a chance to be healthy. They can still be healthy but they are destined to be unhealthy and their situation kind of makes sure that they will never be able to get out of the social structures they are born into.
The study of fetal origins is an amazing and absolutely fascinating field. Some of it seems like common sense and some of it seems to have been known for years and years. The fact that mother and child share the nutrients and toxins that the mother ingests is just one example of this. Whether known by mothers or accepted by science, it’s been a long time that this knowledge has been around.
Things that were not known, like the inputs from the mother being used like information to prepare the fetus for the type of world that it will be born into, all make so much sense coming from the typical biological perspective. The difference is this, just like the stress responses discussed in class that lack evolution away from predators stocking us in the wilderness; this process too lacks that evolution. For example if a mother is stressed because of work then the child is born prepared to enter a very stressful home. But this will not be the case because the mother will have time off from work. In a way the stress that lacks evolution in adults, disrupts the homeostatic balance of their children and causes disease later in life.
One question I do have about this research it the apparent correlation between low birth weight children and heart disease. The study hypothesizes that because the baby was at a low birth weight nutrients was diverted from the heart to the brain and thus the heart is weakened. But my question is this; if heart disease is correlated with low birth weight wouldn’t it too be correlated with being in the lower class? And couldn’t the increased risk of heart disease be due to the fact that lower class people have higher stress with less coping mechanisms, unhealthy food choices, and no exercise routine, rather than diverting nutrients from the heart to the brain as a fetus?
The thing that I fear most about these studies is that they will result in medicating a woman during her pregnancy. We all know that medicine can have negative side affect and it would be extremely risky to try it when fetus’s whole life is at stake. Also pregnancy and birth are already no longer looked at as a natural process but rather as a medical problem in our modern society. I fear that these studies will lead to getting pregnant meaning a long trip to the drug store in order to prevent diseases that may affect your unborn fetus fifty years after conception.
The fact that babies are already pre-disposed to illness and disease before they are even born. The food that the mother eats (or doesn't eat in some cases) and the air she breathes affect the baby's life, maybe not in the first few years but eventually everything will catch up to them. The fact that the amount of stress the mother is exposed to and the way she deals with that stress affects how the baby will deal with stress. The article mentioned that obesity in the mother will affect the child's risk for obesity. Children born of mother's who are obese will most likely be obese themselves and it is not due entirely to poor eating habits or genetics, it is directly linked to the fact that the mother was obese while carrying the child. This article goes along with our class discussions. Our lives are not only shaped by genetics or daily habits but our health is actually shaped by society before we are even born. Society determines who we are before we even have a "say."
The article reinforces several sociological concepts that we have discussed in class. It is interesting to see that a mothers diet, mood, health and nutrition contribute greatly to how her baby will fare throughout life. Evidence like this brings to mind other concerns that effect mothers. Lower class mothers who do not have access to education and may be lacking in a good diet with physical exercise are already setting their children up for less than optimal health before they are even born. Prenatal care is made more important than ever and access to that care should be readily available to all mothers. Society could benefit in a number of ways by educating mothers on the importance of prenatal care. By targeting some of societies ailments before individuals are even born, disease and illness could be significantly reduced.
This article really puts a focus on how the environment we are surrounded by impacts life even before birth. The concepts from class are seen throughout this article, with the focus on the physical environment and the impact on fetal health. Factors that are usually not considered when looking at fetal health like air quality, exposure to toxins in the workplace, etc, seem to be more relevant than other precautions that pregnant women take.
I found this article to be incredibly interesting and directly related to what we have been learning in class. It essentially shows a summary of all the research that has gone to show how our environment affects us when we are in the whom. Most expecting mothers want to do everything they can to help their children and this research gives even more insight on what expecting mothers should be doing. It shows how a mothers exposure to stress and ability to deal with it shapes then how the baby deals with stress. I can see this within my sibling and myself. I am the youngest of 5 and my oldest brother has the worst stress response out of all of us, mind you this was my mothers first child that she had while she was buying her first house and starting her first real job... needless to say she was under a lot of stress. My sister (the second oldest) also gets stressed easily but not as bad as my oldest brother, mind you during this time my mother had a 1 year old child that she was taking care of while she was pregnant, yet again another stressful time. The third child again is better at coping with stress than the oldest too, at this point the others were 3 and 4 and my mom had the parenting thing down. Then the 4th child came along, at this point being pregnant was almost second nature to my mom and she experienced little stress. This is seen in this brother because pretty much nothing stresses him out. Then there was me, while my mother was pregnant with me she decided to change jobs so she could spend more time with her kids and we were putting a addition onto our house. Because of this I feel like I experience more stress than the 4th child in our family but less than everybody else because again being pregnant was no longer stressful for my mom. I have found it very interesting to learn about how my mothers stress affects each of us because it is obviously true that the stress she went through affects our ability to cope with stress today. The other thing that I found very interesting was how pollution can affect fetuses. It gives me all the more reason to live in the country.
After reading this article it all makes sense. Yes, genes have a lot to do with how we end up and what we are predisposed to. However, it really depends on how those genes are expressed and how the body continues to grow in the womb. This is strongly influenced by intrauterine experience. The fetus must prepare for what it believes is going to be life. It can only determine this by the mother. High stress levels, poor nutrition, and other negative factors can strongly affect the fetus. These are all factors that we have just learned affect an individual's or a social structures health. Research is continuing. There is thought as to whether or not a mother should consume a little red wine during pregnancy to help cope with stress and to help heart disease. However, as we know, alochol is also known to have its negative effects on the fetus. Is there an amount that is a not only safe but also beneficial?
After reading this article, I think it really does a good job at making it clear about how much really does and can affect a newborn while it’s in the fetus stages of life. It mentions how proper nutrition and diet are essential to a fetus considering it feeds off whatever the mother is going to consume. This is related to the various food distribution issues the world has in the sense that there are a lot of mothers who are not getting the proper nutrition during pregnancy in order to make the baby healthier. Those who can’t afford the proper foods because of a lack of income (lower class) puts their babies at higher risk for future problems. The article also mentioned that the mother’s type of environment she lives in and the amount of stress she deals with can also affect the baby as well. Lower class people tend to have more stress because they are constantly fighting to keep their jobs, houses, and lives together and therefore encounter a lot of stress which can in turn be put on the baby. The idea of having a baby being born and stuck in the social structure it entered the world in is true. Most children live the same lifestyle as their parents did and when you look to the key link of that reason, it usually leads back to the mother’s life while pregnant.
I feel that pregnant women really take nutrition and exercise, smoking and drinking into consideration, and ignore some of the most important factors. The fact that air pollution, the environment, and how a preganant mother copes with stress are underlying factors to a fetus' health is crazy.
This article does a great job in showing that we have even less choice in this world than we thought. A fetus has no say in their mother's smoking or durg habits, and can't do anything if she doesn't have the money to eat properly, or lives in a highly polluted area.
The part of the article discussing stress is very relavant to our class. It's unfortunate that if the mother lives a stressful life and doesn't have good coping habits that the fetus suffers, and has no choice in doing so. Not only do these stressors effect the fetus, but the stress receoptors that the fetus develops will be a part of him/her for the rest of its life.
This article stats several sociological concepts that we have talked about in class. It has made it very clear that the mother shapes the health of her baby during the fetal stages of life. The mother affects the health of the baby by the diet, mood, and nutrition. This is related to the various food distribution issues the world. There are a lot of mothers who are not getting the proper nutrition during pregnancy in order to make the baby healthier. Those in the lower class don’t have the resources to get the proper nutrition; this is putting their baby at risk. Also the article talked about how stress and anxiety have a huge impact on the health of the baby. We learned in class that poorer people have a harder time coping with stress. Also the type of environment that the mother is living in can affect the baby. Bad air quality and pollution are not helping with the health of the baby.
One of the best articles I have read in some time. I intend to pursue a medical career and didn't think I care much for the research aspect of it, but would definitely consider research on this topic. Also, this statement,"He predicts that one day, pregnant women will be prescribed a dietary supplement that will protect their future children from cancer. "It's not science fiction," he says. "I think that's where we're headed." The idea that cancer could be cured with a simple prenatal pill is pretty mind blowing. If this is true, more education needs to spread to the public about simple changes needed to be made for the nine months of pregnancy. All in all, a great article.
This article is extremely intersteting and I think that it really shows some evidence that our environment while in the womb has an effect on how we are as adults. The concepts from class are seen throughout this article,in regards to fetal health and the physical environment of the mother. Also that a mothers and overall health contribute to how her baby will develop through life as well as how resilient they are in the future. I think that this shows how much of an effect a persons SES has to do on them as well as their babies. Most people in lower social classes live in more polluted areas as well as work there. Knowing now that these factors can have such outcomes for the fetus I think that all expecting mothers should know about this research and how to more protect their unborn babies in any way that they can. Mothers want to do what is best for their children and now it is starting to be known that it has to start before birth.
This article seems very interesting because it is addressing common problems that are affecting youth and trying to explain why chronic disease are affecting children more and more. Although living in a stress free environment, as well as living with less pollution and better nutrition during pregnancy may seem like common sense, and like it would be easy to do I believe it is more problematic in society today. Because of the fast paced style of life, and the rough economy, it is very difficult for mothers to live stress free, especially with the added stress of pregnancy. This research is very important because it may begin to force a change in society that makes living conditions better for pregnant women
This stresses what we already knew about the mothers health during pregnancy and effect the baby's health as well. This information also shows reinforces how social structures influence health. Having a chronic health condition that one has to deal with is an added stress in ones life. Now science is showing us that people that already have added stress, the lower classes, will have increased stress if they develop this chronic health conditions, whether it be something likeheart disease from undernutrition or schizophrenia from increased stress in the womb. However it could also be comforting, especially for middle and upper class mothers, that the more we know about a mothers health, and lifestyle during her pregnancy the greater the ability the mother will have to ensure good health for the baby
The article directly correlates to the discussions we have had in class. Environmental factors that are often ignored are brought to the forefront when it comes to prenatal care. Mothers become so focused on the food they should be eating and the vitamins they should be taking that they often don't think about the environment around them. Are mothers focusing on removing stressors from their lives and avoiding environments where they are breathing in unhealthy elements? Probably not. I think today's culture would benefit if a well rounded prenatal care plan was in place for all pregnant women including those in lower classes. Maybe in the later years of person there would be less disease and illness.
Rather than having a "prescribed dietary supplement" for pregnant women to protect their fetuses from cancer in the future, wouldn't it make more sense to work on fixing environmental problems that contribute to cancer in the first place so that people across all socioeconomic classes will have access to this protection. This could be as simple as reducing pollution or chnaging FDA regulations on what aritifical ingredients are allowed in food, especially that consumed by children. While it is interesting that cancer could be prevented by protecting a fetus, it seems more sensible to work towards reducing the causes of cancer. As far as stress goes, it seems like it would be more stressful to change your routine significantly for pregnancy than to just try to make healthy choices without being obsessive about what you consume or do for your fetus, but then again, my mom ate lots of fish when she was pregnant with me and look how I turned out. Just kidding...
During a pregnancy many factors are not looked at when looking at the health of the child. AIr quality, workplace toxins and pollutions, and many other environmental issues that can harm your child. Woman concentrate more on there diet and what chemical substances are being put into there body. That is something that should be looked at but there are many other factors to that need to be looked into more.
The more we find out about science and the links between various diseases and social structures, the harder it is to go about our daily lives. Pregnant woman have a hard time knowing what to eat, drink, and do depending on new studies that come out. New environmental and social factors that this article suggest make it even harder for them. I imagine being pregant is very stressful in itself, so with the mood changes and sensitiviy I think it would be very hard to cope with stress in healthy way not only for you, but for your baby. The article supports the thoery of physiological reactivity in the sense that early experiences with stress affect how we deal with it later on and the stress receptors developed early on will stay with us. This article takes this further saying that experiences of the mom while the baby is in the womb even effects the baby physiologically. As research, along with this study, suggests, this is even more common in certain social groups. Typically lower class woman have more stress put on them for various reasons, money flow being a big one, so the baby may come out more stressed. Also in lower class groups, this article suggest they have lower birth weights which may put them at a higher risk to heart disease later in life. The lower birth rate may be due to the lack of prenatal nutrition due to lackof resources, mostly constricted by lack of money. What is also common in this class section is the theory of learned helplessness, which states that those who experience alot of negativity without much control over it early on will have a hard time dealing with stressful situations later on in life, which this article suggests could be even due to in utero experiences.
Overall, I think this article should be shared with expecting mothers because it discovers more links between diseases and social/environmental factors. If we continue to look at the these contributing factors we can better prevent these common killing diseases of society today
I think this article greatly portrays what we learned in class. I feel like whatever we learn about it always comes back to keeping yourself healthy. If a mother keeps herself healthy during pregnancy, then her baby will be healthy. This article is saying that any stress on the mother's body will put stress on the baby's body and affect its health out of the womb. This can be some beneficial knowledge not only to increase the health of newborns, but it also gives the mother's incentive to be healthy. If women know that their own obesity can cause their children to be obese, maybe it will encourage them to lose weight and become healthier. The article also talks a lot about how mental stress on a mother can impact whether or not her baby is more susceptible to psychological problems. Mother's of a lower socioeconomic status are more exposed to stress which is correlated to their higher occurrences of having babies of low birth weight.
I used to not believe that what you did during pregnancy really affected your baby after birth(besides alcohol and drug use). This article defiantly gives some good insight into the topic and has made me more of a believer. The one thing I didn't really agree with was the part about obesity surgery. The article says that women, after having a weight loss surgery and losing weight, were more likely to have babies with lower birth weights. I don't think this is because they loss weight, it is probably because weight-loss surgeries like getting your stomach stapled make it so you can't eat as much since your stomach is artificially smaller, which would mean less nutrients to your baby and therefore a lower birth weight.
I really enjoyed this article as it is really focusing on the preventative care we should take when we are pregnant rather than living our lives without worry and then treating our babies if they are born sick. I strongly agree with the facts presented and that our lives are shaped a great deal before we are even born; my mom smoked while pregnant with me and her doctors said that I would be born with a lower lung capacity, and possible brain damage (luckily I wasn't, but reading about this is pretty scary). It's scary mainly because many of the issues they talk about are issues within our society that we cannot control, the enviornment we are brough up in is not usually something we can control; pollution, stress, income are just a few. This is a great article to share with pregnant women as it is a great way to explain why proper prenatal care is important and it could help improve the rate of infant deaths.
The article was a great example of exactly the areas in environmental human development that have been neglected in exchange for biological and genetic models of growth. While genetics do play an important role in health, learning, and memory, the genes are not the sole causal factor. A mother's contribution to her child does not begin once the child is born but rather as it forms internally from zygote to fetus. Some interesting points in the article included the theories regarding stress, pollution, and obesity. Other research articles have provided data on how stress levels of pregnant mothers can inhibit the growth of their child both mentally and physically. As many people on this blog have stated, those mothers in the lower, poorer classes appear to offer the worst lifestyle for their offspring. Often, these women must work long hours while pregnant and are subject to poor nutritional habits. Also, women in urban areas who are subjected to large amounts of smog and exhaust fumes inhale such toxins with little or no thought as to the effects it can have on themselves, let alone their children. While the correlation between children's behavioral development and their prenatal environment remains bound by confounds, it is an essential research tool to better understand human biology.
he article discusses what we've been discussing in class in regards to health of the baby. The majority of the article talks about the medical aspect of pregnancy and birth. Not until the end does the article talk about some of the social effects that affects the baby's health. Obviously what the mother eats, the pollutants she is exposed to, her stress levels all play into the baby's health while in-utero. However, why is she eating what she is eating, what is causing her stress, why is she exposed to pollutants? There are all questions that lead to her social status. David Barker noticed that babies born to poor mothers were more likely to have heart disease. In the United States, poor people are more likely to live near toxic environments. Poor people may not have the education or the resources to purchase healthy food or even the recommended prenatal vitamins. The daily stresses from life such as where the next meal is going to come from or how rent is going to be paid due to lack of money. Again, this article discusses the medical aspects of pregnancy and birthing and touches on the social aspects of pregnancy.
This article relates to many things that we have talked about in class. I personally think that it is very interesting that all of this research is coming out about how babies are being exposed to things in the uterus and how it is linked to many disease's. I have always heard of all the things women shouldn't eat and drink or do while pregnant, but I have never really thought about how pollution or certain water would affect a fetus. However I think that as all this research comes out women who are pregnant are going to have to think more about everything that they eat, everything that they do and everywhere that they go, and how those choices can affect their babies. Eventually I can see science being involved in how a women carries during her pregnancy. More monitoring will probably be done and women may possibly be put on special diets and restrictions during their pregnancy. This is just another example of how medicalization is taking a normal life process and making it a medical problem that needs interventions.
This article was very interesting to me, as were some of the links throughout the piece. Most women I know who have been or are pregnant work really hard to do the right thing for their child from the moment of conception. An article like this could go a long way in helping to develop healthy fetuses. It looks at pregnancy in a different light than most do and shows us some different things to focus on while pregnant. This is certainly taking the social norms we have discussed in class and pushing them to the side. I would have liked to see more facts to back up the claims. I also read the sub article on drinking during pregnancy which interests me because I've heard before that a glass or two of wine can be more beneficial to the fetus than the stress you may endure without it. I liked seeing some statistics on that study, which seemed to prove that children were just fine when their mothers had done some light to moderate drinking while pregnant.
On the one hand, I believe that this article lends great support to what we have been discussing in class. It directs attention back to the root cause of disease and illness, and suggests that our social surroundings affect our health even before we are born. It makes sense. As a fetus we are inextricably linked to our mothers. The polluted air she breathes, the drugs she comes into contact with, the stress on her body will all directly influence our development, and anything that changes our development in utero will affect our health and wellness later in life. It's almost common-sensical.
However, I would also argue that this article lends support to the opposite side, and this idea of fetal origins could very easily lead to further medicalizing of pregnancy and birth. The stress of emphasizing the importance that our time as a fetus can have on our life-long health could send up a panic. It could lead to the over-sheltering of pregnant women, and it could very easily lead to the development of products/drugs aimed at "keeping your fetus healthy". I think that pregnant women, especially those in upper classes, would easily buy into these kinds of products instead of simply assessing the environment around them and changing anything that seems unhealthy.
Overall I think that this is an interesting avenue for science to investigate and for sociology to stress the importance of our society and environment even before we are born. However, with every new discovery comes the risk of people/companies in power preying on our fears to make a buck.
This article completely supports what we have discussed in class and contradicts the typical Western biomedical perspective in today's world. Physicians today suggest that diseases are caused by specific bacteria or viruses or have genetic causes that predispose individuals to those diseases. This article, while it does not say these are not factors, suggest that environmental factors before we are even born play a crucial role in our health for the rest of our lives. I found the study interesting that stated there was a relationship between a baby's birth rate and heart disease as an adult. This shows that the mother's environment (air she breaths, food she eats, etc.) plays a factor in the future health of the child. This argues the biomedical perspective that environment and stress is unrelated to health.
As someone interested in going into pediatrics, I find studies like this fascinating. I think that in order to refocus our medical practices and improve the health of future generations it is important to focus more on preventative medicine. If this is something that is predetermining our children's health before they are born, I think that it is something that we as a society should be more concerned with. Not only would it be beneficial to the child's health (as well as the mother's in most cases) to be more careful of such risk factors during pregnancy, but it is even a financial investment in hopefully decreasing a child's future medical needs and costs. The emergency medicine that we practice is so expensive compared to an ounce of prevention.
This article shows how completely our lives are controlled by sociological concepts. There is no free choice and no fate that can occur without being effected by our social status. We might like the think that our attitude, the way thay we react to our circumstances, and our personality in general are determined by our prenatal lives. Everything, including temperament, is determined by what happens before we have any control over our own lives.
This article of fetal orgins was quite interesting, and should be shared with expecting mothers and society. Its interesting to read how the mother's diet, health, and overall well being greatly influences how the baby will be like in life. Everyone knows that when your pregnant you should eat this and don't drink that, and do this, but I never realized even stress would affect a child. I know that when my mother was pregnant with me she was very stressed out. Now I do not deal with stress very well and it doesnt take much for me to be stressed out.
Also you can't help but wonder about the mothers that are in lower class societies. How are they able to afford to have prenatal care, a proper diet, and just having a stressfree enviornment.
All I can say is my mother was one stressed out person, and my child will be just the same. I think that this article will help lead to more medical breakthroughs. From the minute of conception you are your own person and just because you’re not out viewing the world you still take in everything that is going on. This article provides good subject matter on relevant issues, talking about why we are the way we are. Prenatal influence can open up much more as to how our health is and how we mature. It’s an interesting article in this respect because of the questions it opens up. Future parents should read articles like this so they can stay as calm as possible during their pregnancy so their child will have a calmer future.
This author makes a valid point in that through the research of fetal origins we can shed light on environmental factors during pregnancy that can make things go right later in life, taking away from the negative view of all the things that could go wrong with a pregnancy. As a society we associate particular emotions with events due to the influence from society and what we have been told to expect. Our emotions and ideas of an event effect how our body responds (mind body dualism). So what if we did not WORRY so much about what we eat or drink during pregnancy but instead we educated people on the benefit of having a positive attitude during those nine months. I believe (and hope) if people knew that the way they reacted to stressful events or that their eating “habits” have an effect on the fetus then they might change their behavior. We are in a scientific paradigm, if we share the facts about this study people are more likely to listen. I know that I strongly believe this authors perspective as she shared her ideas backed with facts. An interesting one being that 52% of children gestated after a mothers antiobesity surgery had lower birth weights and were three times less likely to become obese than there siblings born prior to the surgery.
While this article is interesting, I do not believe that it is a revelation. Positive thinking has tremendous benefits, however the difficult thing about this technique is that it is tough to scientifically confirm. This being said think about the difference in mood with weather. On a rainy, overcast, dreary day you feel slower, sadder and just have less energy. This of course effects performance, motivation and probably development. On the other hand the exact opposite can be seen on a bright sunny day. Using this example and applying it towards a developing fetus, if the mother is more relaxed and generally in a happier mood than she will see these bodily benefits of more energy, better performance and these seem likely to cascade to the baby leading to healthier development.
Over the past few months, I have personally experienced the benefits of maintaining a positive, "happy" state of mind, and it has done wonders for me. I am a true believer (especially after reading the article) that this state of mind in a pregnant woman can positively influence the health of her child. If a pregnant woman treats herself well, she is treating her fetus well. Unfortunately this is practically unachievable for the population's majority in our crazy American lifestyle.
I think this article is a great way to show how poverty, low social class, and associated diseases and stresses are reinforced and repeated. A pregnant women of a lower social class will likely not be able to eat much, or well, which according to this article can predispose her unborn child to heart disease later in life. Stresses that can cause learned helplessness can be transmitted to a fetus. These feelings leading to measurable levels of stress and reactions in unborn children is impressive, and simply goes to show that EVERYTHING about prenatal life seems to be important.
I think that is really cool and kind of scary that all those illnesses can be linked to the 9 months of pregnancy. This puts so much more pressure on the mother. They have to be extra careful about everything, granted most of the things were known to have adverse effects on the babies, but never to that extend. This study further proves and shows that those with more stress and poorer health give birth to babies with the same qualities as them and unfortunately the cycle just keeps repeating.
~Cami
After reading the article it gives me a deeper appreciation for the fact that woman who are pregnant are required to care for themselves on extreme levels sometimes. Pre-natal care and avoiding harmful things like smoking and consuming alcohol are three of the most beneficial things a mother can do for her child. From as early as the moment of conception, babies see the outside world and experience their environment through their mothers eyes, and although they haven't been born yet, they are greatly affected by their surroundings. The mothers emotions, behavioral patterns, and exposure to stress all play a significant role on things such as the child's ability to cope and the notion of learned helplessness.
The article itself is truly amazing. It does relate greatly with what we have discussed in class and in our readings and so much more. In class we discussed abut cognitive emotional appraisal, copying, stress, and learned helplessness, (simmon's you know from the study session), and this article connects with each idea perfectly. Focusing more on the development of the fetus, the mother's evironmental experiences from a society that is measured by social classes, directly affect her fetus in positive and negative ways.
The article discusses that there are things that a soon to be mother would never have thought of. With the amount of stress that a mother experiences will in turn affect the fetus negatively, but what the article shows that not all stress is negative and mothers have a habit of creating more stress on themselves due to what they read on how to live during their nine month term. A becoming mother that is new to the experience wants to make everything perfect so the stress builds inside just think about what they are doing wrong or right. Instead, mothers need to relax and in turn develop ways to deal with the stressors they encounter everyday. Mothers portraying indicators of learned helplessness will affect the fetus and will create issues in the child early on in life of further on in adulthood. But one thing to take away from this article rather than what should be done or shouldn't be done, is that becoming a mother is a great experience and that no matter where you stand in the social class you are happy and about to give life.
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