Until recently, the prevailing scientific habit has been to treat the earliest period of human development – from conception to birth, as an insensitive, unconscious, period of physical growth.
The belief which has blocked understanding is that no intelligence is possible and no learning or memory can occur until after birth, when the construction of the brain is more advanced. If this were the case, it would follow that unborn babies cannot care about anything, know anything, or learn anything.
Newborn babies have been (and still are) getting a raw deal. Belief still exists that baby brains are not yet grown and therefore not much use at birth. In spite of abundant new research and knowledge about infant senses, we find that obstetricians, paediatricians and other professionals remain unconvinced. Birth practices today remain largely the same: bright lights, cold rooms, procedures that are painful for the baby, procedures that are invasive and uncomfortable and all too often professionals blunder through the birth process violating a baby’s senses, believing that they don’t exist. Parents today are in danger of blundering through pregnancy, unaware that the baby’s senses are already working.
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