Fetal Hippocampal Development Affects Prenatal Attachment Representations

Memories of prenatal relational experience leave physical and chemical imprints on the brain and nervous system of an unborn child that influence attachment tendencies and behaviors. Attachment representations develop in utero as an unborn child thinks, feels, learns, behaves, and remembers according to environmental stimuli that are activated by interaction with maternal transmissions during critical gestational periods. Research on fetal hippocampal development has revealed that the mechanisms required for mental representations of attachment relationships to develop are present and functioning during the fetal period by the 13th week of gestation. The findings in this literature review support that a child begins to formulate predictions about the relationship with his or her mother during the prenatal period.