the conscious baby program for parents...what kind of curriculum for new people coming into form?...

The Conscious Baby Program for Parents ™

Ehealth Learning

September 5, 2017

Introductions

• Director of Education for Association for

Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and

Health

• Mission statement

• 1983

• David Chamberlain, PhD

• Mind of Your Newborn Baby, originally,

Babies Remember Birth (1988, 1998)

• Thomas Verny, MD, Secret Life of the

Unborn Baby (1981, 1986)

The womb is a classroom,

and every child attends ~

David Chamberlain, PhD

Epigenetics

(Nature and Nurture)

Attachment

(Parenting)

Polyvagal Theory

(Somatics)

Neuroscience

(Optimal Development)

Many Branches of Science

Converging

Slide from Marti Glenn, PhD

Why Conscious Baby

• Support our Prenatal

and Perinatal

Educators

– 11 modules,

– 273 students, 30

countries currently

• Educate and Support

Parents

– 9 modules

– “Empathy farmers” (Robin

Grille)

Overview of Conscious Baby

Our Modules

• Babies Are Conscious

• Parenting Begins Before Birth

• Conscious Conception

• Babies as Prenates ~ Prenatal Experience

• Prenatal Bonding ~ Preborn Attachment

• Conscious Birth ~ How We Are Born Matters

• Being with Babies After Birth

• Breastfeeding and the Baby’s Experience

• Postpartum Care and the Mother/Baby Dyad

The Baby’s Experience

Preconception

Conception

Prenatal experiences

Birth experiences

The Sacred Hour

Layers of

Experience

• Coupled

• Implicit

• Trackable

• ANS

• States

• Movements

• Breastfeeding

• Postpartum

• Family time

Module 1

• Babies Are Conscious

Babies Are Conscious

• The baby’s senses start early; 12 not 5

senses for the preborn – Touch ~ 5 weeks, and skin develops at 3 weeks

– Motion and relationship with gravity (vestibular) ~ after 7 weeks

– Thermal sensing of hot and cold

– Pain sensing (now termed nociception) ~ 7 weeks.

– Hearing ~ 14 weeks

– Taste ~ 13 weeks

– Smell, connected to taste

– Mouthing

– Sucking and licking ~ 13 weeks

– Vision ~ 26 weeks, plus other “seeing”

– Telepathic sensing and attunement

– Transcendent sensing

Source: Chamberlain


• Awareness starts early in the womb

– Autonomic Nervous System development as

early as 3 weeks

Early structures for

autonomic

responses seeking

safety and

connection, and

defensive responses

to threat


• We develop in a sequence

Beginning

Middle

End

• How do we do things?

• Do we set intentions?

• Do we prepare well,

complete the action and

follow through?

• Do we allow ourselves to

rest?

• Are we constantly doing?

• Do we procrastinate?

• Do we freeze or collapse,

or want to be rescued?

Is there a pattern? This pattern begins

when we are babies


• Babies learn in the

womb

– Listening

– Developing language

– Sensing stress,

responding to tension

– Feeling mother’s

responses to outside

world

• Imprints start here

What is an Imprint

• It is an impression in material or substrate, like a track. It is an experience that overlays our true essence, and we adapt to it. It becomes a pattern

• They can be positive and negative

• It is like a wrinkle in the shirt.

• We all have a blueprint that is our health and vitality, our connection to Source, our true essence

• Imprints can obscure or enhance this essence, re-organize our energy, and can create patterns that get in the way of or support us being our true selves, living with capacity and vitality.

Positive imprints start here

What babies want to know from the start

• Am I wanted?

• Am I welcome?

• Am I heard, seen, felt?

• Am I safe, protected

• Do I belong?

• Am I loveable?

Module 2

• Parenting Begins Before Birth

Parenting Begins Before Birth

• Ghosts in Your Genes

• Multiple research

studies – Dutch Famine (Nathanielsz)

– Quebec Ice Storm (Cao-Lei, et

al)

– Genocide, Holocaust (Yehuda)

– 9-11 Tragedy (Yehuda)

• Stress

– Research at the University of

Lethbridge Canada

15 By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-N0827-318 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5367208

By Deb (IceStorm199817) [CC BY 2.0

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Source: National Institute for War Documentation,

Amsterdam

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/North_face_south_towe

r_after_plane_strike_9-11.jpg

Dr. Gerlinde Metz


• What Does a Family Look Like?

– What is our family culture? What is happening for

the parents?


• Parenting Styles

– Attachment: How we are parented shows up

when we parent

John Bowlby Mary

Ainsworth

Mary Main

What is your parenting style?

Often a mix

Depends on stress

And circumstance Insecure

Disorganized

Secure


You can consciously

parent from before

conception and heal

family patterns with

practice and awareness


• Abuse

• Neglect

• Household

Dysfunction

• Impact on Behavior,

Physical and Mental

Health

What is YOUR ACEs Score? http://www.acestoohigh.com


• Vulnerabilities, Triggers

• Resources, Inspirations

– Make a list

Memory and Sequencing

• Explicit - recall

• Implicit – unconscious

• Sequencing and stress – procedural, an action

• Imprints – experiences in our bodies during our lifetime

• Coupling dynamics – physical experience often coupled with emotions

Long Term Memory

Explicit

(Declarative or conscious recall)

Episodic

(Events)

Semantic

(Facts)

Implicit

(Unconscious or somatic)

Procedural

(motor skills, actions)

See Levine, 2016

•Slow

•Connected

•Starts at Preconception

•Looks at many different patterns

•Ancestral

•Prenatal issues

•Chemical and surgical birth

imprints

•Difficult births

•Double binds

•Family dynamics

Working with the Baby’s

Experience

Big focus on a

person’s

resources

Module 3

• Conscious Conception

Conscious Conception

• We advocate conscious conception

– Answers the questions, Am I wanted? Am I

welcome? Do I belong?


• Healing the Womb before Conception

– Loss, still birth, abortion, illness, fear, forgiveness

Concious Conception

• Connecting with your baby before

conception

– Spiritual connection

– Sensing your baby (Elizabeth Hallett, Penny Chang, David Chamberlain)

• Fertility and Assisted Reproductive

Technology

– Energetics, intentions and consciousness (Margaret Rosenau)

• Addressing difficulty together and being on

“the same page” (Rebecca Thompson-Hitt)


• Couples Dialogue: Create Conditions

• Egg and Sperm/Preconception Attraction

Complex


• Create a felt sense of safety

– We grow inside our mothers

– She is our first home

– Let’s help our women and girls feel safe in their

bodies

• Exercise: Noticing

Parents’ Lived Experience and

The Prenate

“When women and girls are

pregnant, their perceptions

and beliefs shape their

physiology, which impacts

their internal environment

within which their developing

babies grow and influences

the lifelong programming of

their babies’ systems.”~ Ann

Weinstein, p. 23

Module 4

• Babies as Prenates ~ Prenatal Experience

Babies as Prenates

• First Trimester Patterns

– Finding Our Home/A

Safe Place

– Discovery/Am I

Wanted? Welcomed?

– Loss most often

happens here

– Physical development

Anatomy & Physiology, Connexions Web site. http://cnx.org/content/col11496/1.6/, Jun 19,

2013. Source: Emerson, Linn, Linn, Linn,

date; White 2003

http://cnx.org/content/col11496/1.6/

Babies as Prenates

• Second Trimester Patterns – Spiritual development

– Mother often feels the best

– Babies are moving a lot

• Patterns of behavior

– Two layers of support

– Hear and feel love!

– Difficulty

• Toxins

• Overwhelming experiences

• Grief

• Domestic Violence (Michael Trout)

Source: Emerson, Linn, Linn, Linn,

date; White 2003

Babies as Prenates

• Third Trimester Patterns

– Stress and pregnancy

– Playing with your baby in utero

– Umbilical affect

– Claustrophobia

– Individuation/Differentiation

Source: Emerson, Linn, Linn, Linn,

date; White 2003

Module 5

• Prenatal Bonding ~ Preborn Attachment

Prenatal Bonding ~

Preborn Attachment

• Bonding: The relationship of the parents

to the baby

• Attachment: The relationship of the baby

to the parents

• Begins before conception

• Hardwired to bond and attach

– Survival pattern

– Bio~psycho~social

• If supported in utero, has profound effects

Best practices

• Prenatal Bonding – Prenatal Stimulation (early

model, 1980s)

– Renee Van De Carr (1980s-

1990s)

• Communication

• Simple games

– Beatrice Manrique (1990s)

• Communication

• Actions

– Gerhard Schroth and

Prenatal Bonding, BA

• Positive outcomes

• N=7000

Prenatal Bonding ~

Preborn Attachment

• Prenatal Bonding is intentionally falling in love with the baby

you want in your life, whether it is a desire to conceive or loving

the baby that is growing in your womb already.

– Preconception: Send Love

– Conception: Love and Welcome

– First Trimester and beyond

• Affirmations, touch, song and communication

– Second Trimester

• Games, imagery, connection

– Third Trimester

• Relaxation, rest, preparation

• Loving sounds, as music, simple words of love are full of

information and give rise to positive chemistry in the mother,

which passes to the baby.

Slide from Susan Highsmith

Module 6

• Conscious Birth ~ How We Are Born Matters

Conscious Birth

• How we are born

matters

• Best outcomes

include – Continuous support

(midwifery, doula)

– Gentle, without induction,

augmentation or intervention

– If intervention is needed, the

mom and baby are prepared

– If they are not prepared then

repair can be done afterwards

Conscious Birth

• Concept of the Surround

– Who is there?

– What is the environment like?

– Two Layers of Support

• Supporting mother, partner AND Baby

– Baby doula (William Emerson)

• Pelvic Inlet

• Pelvic

Bowl/Engagement

• Turn

• Pelvic Outlet

• Birth Pause

• Skin-to-skin/Slow

Birth as a Sequence

Imprints from Birth

• Timing (induction ~ Baby, you can be born when you

are ready)

• Intensity (fast, slow, prolonged)

• Pain (mother’s and baby’s)

• Survival energy (life~death feeling)

• Mastery and empowerment (“I did it!”)

• Transitions (inside to outside ~ huge!)

• Analgesia (feels like no one is there)

• Connection (support is key!)

• Feeling seen, heard, understood

Sequence: Cycle of Satisfaction

Intention

Preparation

Action

Follow Through

Integration

Rest

Pelvic Inlet

Pelvic

Bowl/Engagement

Pelvic Outlet Turn

Skin to

skin/Slow

First Hour

Module 7

• After Birth ~ Neonatal Period

After Birth

• Sacred Hour: A new sequence (Raylene Phillips)

– Breast crawl

• No separation after birth (Nils Bergman)

– Buffering protection

• The baby tells a story

– If you had done this most amazing thing, wouldn’t

you want to tell someone about it? ~ Karen

Strange

The Baby Tells a Story

Baby Practitioner Dennis Hertenstein, DC

Module 8

• Breastfeeding and the Baby’s Experience

Breastfeeding and the Baby’s

Experience

• Birth is a lifelong event

– Birth difficulties show up in breastfeeding

• Breastfeeding is a full body experience

• Difficult births create compression, as well as

in utero constraint

– Is the baby moving in utero?

• Therapies can help

• The baby often tells you what needs to

happen for them

Module 9

• Postpartum Care and the Mother/Baby Dyad

Postpartum Care

• The Baby’s Pace/Baby Time

• Postpartum Health

• Mother and baby are a system

• The relationship is an entity

• Fathers/partners experience is important

• Include the whole family

Conclusions

• The womb is a classroom, and every baby

attends

• What kind of classroom can we help create,

what kind of curriculum for new people

coming into form?

– Loving, connected, present, supported

– A template for health throughout the lifespan

– This is what The Conscious Baby Program for

Parents is all about

the conscious baby program for parents...what kind of curriculum for new people coming into form?...

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