Prenatal University; Commitment to Fetal-Family Bonding and the Strengthening of the Family Unit as an Educational Institution

This paper reviews The Prenatal University stimulation program, which is
designed: 1) to create an interactive relationship between parents to be and the developing fetus, and 2) to
reinforce a “preconscious awareness of the environment” by the developing fetus. The prenatal stimulation
program is designed with working parents in mind. Only two five-minute sessions are required per day for
effective implementation. Both mother and father are involved; siblings and other relatives are also encouraged
to join in the game-like sessions. Prenatal stimulation allows mother/infant and father/infant bonding, and
strengthens familial bonding through interactive communication. Primary communication begins during the “kick
game,” in which either parent presses upon the stomach in the area of the fetus’ foot and the fetus responds
with a kick; the parents can then perceive their fetus as being human. Mother and father are equally involved in
the stimulation process, setting up positive co-parenting patterns that usually continue after the birth. Siblings
who are allowed to talk to the fetus and feel it through their mother’s stomach can develop a positive
relationship with the baby before it is brought home from the hospital. The program also emphasizes continued
physical intimacy between father and mother to be, as father is instructed to pat, rub, and place his lips on
mother’s abdomen to communicate with the fetus. Prenatal stimulation introduces an associative learning
process that may impact the fetal development through the fetus’ auditory, tactile, and spatial senses.