During pregnancy, many mothers question whether or not their baby is in permanent communication with them, and the answer is yes. The baby inside the mother’s belly is a very sensitive and conscious being that responds to the mother’s internal signals, feelings, and experiences.
I often say that the mother’s womb is her baby’s first school and also her first home. The baby’s development is strongly influenced by the mother’s physical, mental and emotional well-being, as well as by the mother’s perception of the world around her.
A baby who is nourished in the womb of a healthy, loving and peaceful mother starts his life in the best way, as the maternal womb is also the basis of the baby’s emotional development, reinforcing his feelings of confidence, self-love, self-worth, and his perception of what it is to feel cherished and welcome.
According to Dr. Thomas Verny, psychiatrist, author, and father of prenatal psychology, there are three primary communication channels between a mother and her baby in the womb:
1. Neurohormonal Communication
It happens through the placenta and the umbilical circulation. The mother is able to communicate with her baby by releasing hormones.
For example, if the mother is anxious, and under stress, her body begins to produce a hormonal chain reaction to respond to her condition, and several stress hormones are released into her bloodstream, her heart rate increases, the breathing rate gets faster, and so on.
The baby is uneasy because he starts to receive different hormonal changes and he also begins to produce a series of hormones in order to influence the mother’s condition, helping her to calm down and relax, returning to her
balance, for an optimal pregnancy.
2. Behavioral Communication
This type of communication happens when the mother talks, sings, dances when she is angry or simply sad when she is sharing feelings of love or total disinterest for her baby. On the other hand, the baby also communicates with the mother through her behavior.
The baby kicks as if it were drawing the mother’s attention or just stretches its limbs when it wakes up, the baby moves harmoniously in the womb or kicks hard when is feeling restless.
3. Psychic Communication
Here we enter the field of quantum physics that states that when two particles were connected once and then separated, they are still in some way in contact. This is what happens to twins when one can feel what the other is experiencing, even separated by miles, and it also happens between the mother and her baby in the womb.
The mother feels what the baby is feeling and vice versa. We may not be able to measure these vibrations yet, but there are certainly more perceptions than our senses and the logical deduction does not reach.
How can you become more aware of this Internal Communication with your Baby?
It is through the awareness of the body, through slow and peaceful breathing, physical and emotional relaxation, that the mother is able to slow down her daily rhythm, turning her attention inward, towards herself, her body and her baby, becoming aware of the close connection between the two.
The practice of inner peace and prenatal yoga are great resources to help the mother calm down her entire central nervous system, closely linked to her baby’s survival and development. She is then able to balance her thoughts and thus, becoming more sensitive to the physical, emotional and energetic communication that exists between the two.
We can say that it is vital that both mother and father communicate with their unborn baby because it is during pregnancy that the bond is established between mother and child and the other members of the family. Bonding will also help the baby’s physical, psychological and genetic development.
By Susana Lopes, she is a prenatal educator and a yoga teacher. In her daily life, if she is not with her three kids, she serves and gives support to the needs of new mothers and their babies. She is the founder of the Stress-Free Pregnancy Program to help women better control the stress of their daily lives and deeply connect with their baby inside.