Journal Abstracts
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Early childhood literature suggests children born after the loss of an infant sibling are at risk for attachment disorders, yet there continues to be a lack of intervention available to support the parents of these children during their pregnancies. The stories of these adult subsequent children give meaning to why attachment disorders can result and provide a strong case for intervention around infant loss and the subsequent pregnancy. Contrary to other studies on this topic, these participants summarize healing and hope.
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This article explores the use of visual language as a means of examining and communicating the subjective experience of pregnancy. The participants, eleven women in their final trimester of pregnancy, were asked to complete five abstract drawings accompanied by verbal descriptions of their own perceptions and feelings. Using specialized concept cards developed by Rhyne (1979), participants were invited to consider four distinctive "mind states" or feeling states - sadness, anger, fear and joy.
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Searching for the possible roots of anger, the author, from extensive experiential, clinical work with clients looks at the pre-conception imprinting that colours not only the birth, but also the life scripts and personality of humans, in order to find healing from violent, angry, raging negative imprinting.
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This article, after introducing the sandplay© method developed by Dora Kalff, explores the images seen in the work of sandplay© clients that may depict birth and/or prenatal experiences. In contrast to other modalities that employ sand trays, the Kalfian method relies on the power of the medium; sand, water, a collection of miniatures, and a tray of specific dimensions, to evoke a process within the client that is not dependent upon interpretation for healing. Case study examples are used to amplify some of the symbols that portray natalistic themes.
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This article reviews existing research on how a pregnant mother's mental health status, stress level, and temperament affect her unborn baby's sensory processing abilities. After a brief introduction to sensory integration and sensory processing, research on how scientists learn about the fetus' developing nervous system by observing his/her behavior is presented. Maternal temperament and increased stress during pregnancy often impact temperament and developmental delay.
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Health research suggests that personal agency plays a key role in health experiences. In this qualitative analysis of the experiences of 40 recent mothers accessing healthcare services from physicians and midwives, we found that agency is linked to democratic relationships that support women's access to and discussion of relevant health information. While most participants wanted to participate more actively in their care, problematic physician-patient communication hampered their ability to exercise personal agency.
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The purpose of this study is to clarify the possession rate of fetal/infant memory in the womb and/or at birth and to validate its characteristic. A total of 1620 answered questionnaires of the 3601 distributed were returned, giving an overall recovery rate of 45.0%. The possession rates of womb and birth memory were 33.0% and 20.7%, respectively. Parents, too, responded with regard to their own memory from birth, and 1.1% appeared possessing such memory.
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Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States, threatening the health of millions of Americans. President Clinton has been a major supporter of addressing the problem of obesity, especially in children. To date this condition has been challenging to both understand its origins and to treat. This article reviews the pre- and perinatal literature and related medical literature and suggests that intrauterine undernutrition (famine-like) conditions during the first trimester shows a promising area for further research to explore childhood and adult obesity.
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Health from a pre- and perinatal (primal period) perspective has been mostly a theoretical construct. However, in the last 20 years, published studies have confirmed the effects of environmental factors occurring pre- and perinatally and the development of a number of diseases. These indicators point to the fact that we should continue exploring links between the date of birth (or the date of conception) and a great variety of human health conditions, such as, diseases, abnormalities, personality traits, as well as states of health.
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This article explores the influence on brain development, as well as the neurological and behavioral outcomes, of the preterm and very preterm infant. It also briefly covers the influence of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), multiple births, gestational age, and birth weight on development as well as giving a more in depth review of literature that evaluates the impact of preterm birth and very preterm birth on brain development and neurological and behavioral outcomes.
