So, you want to be a vehicle for new life on the planet.  

Yes, a vehicle--as a pregnant person, you are a walking incubator.

How the incubator levels are set will affect the development of the human growing inside you, and may determine what kind of person you bring into the world. 

YOU MUST UNDERSTAND that your emotions, thoughts, feelings, reactions--affect your nuero-chemical/hormonal makeup, on a physiological level---and therefore that chemistry is flooding the system of whoever is developing in your womb. 

If you are stressed out, angry, don't feel supported, arguing, depressed, fearful, you greatly increase the likelihood of giving birth to a human who has an overly developed limbic system (where our fight/flight responses are triggered).  

When so much energy is being devoted to limbic system (primitive brain) development, less energy is being put toward frontal lobe development (most recent in homo sapiens brain evolution), where our reason and logic centers reside.

DID YOU KNOW?   That our brains cannot distinguish the difference between the thought of a threat, and a real threat? It's all the same to our brains.  DID YOU KNOW?   Stressing about traffic creates the same response in our bodies as someone holding a gun to our heads.   DID YOU KNOW?  That by just thinking about something upsetting, we upset our entire systems AS IF IT WERE ACTUALLY HAPPENING? 

Ok, now don't freak out.  The purpose of this message is NOT to stress you out, but to make you AWARE.

Here's the other side of the coin:  feeling supported, happy, calm, relaxed, grateful, joyful, peaceful, awe-struck, is AMAZING for our brains and bodies, and introduces a slew of fabulous neuro-chemicals into our systems--and help us maintain a strong and healthy immune system, as well as giving us a healthy perspective on the quality of our lives. 

These mental states/emotions/attitudes also contribute towards healthy development of the frontal lobes, both in our own brains, as well as the brain of the developing person in your walking incubator self.

If you are not in fight or flight mode, neither is your baby.  If you ARE in fight or flight mode frequently, so will your baby be, and you will be contributing to the devolution of the human mind, by stimulating excessive development of the most primitive structures of the human brain.   We do not live in caves anymore.  We do not need to flee from saber toothed tigers.  

Thanks to humanity reaching a level of organization that allowed for agriculture (regular food) and a more stationary (vs. nomadic) existence,  we, as homo sapiens, felt safe/secure enough (comparitively) to not engage our limbic systems (and amygdalas!) as frequently as our predecessors did. 

This sense of security, combined with regular sources of nourishment (proteins, fats, carbs, vitamins, minerals) allowed our frontal lobes to develop more and more, with each generation, with less stimulation to the primitive regions the homo sapien brain.  

It's all about the timing, you see:  there's only 9 months, thereabouts, that a human fetus has to cook in that incubator before it comes out (STILL NOT FINISHED, MIND YOU!!!).   That's not very long when you consider HOW MUCH HAS TO HAPPEN in those very few short months. 

So if you're a walking ball of stress, you are growing a baby, who as an adult, will likely have an overactive limbic system, and will be prone to being stressed out, overly emotional, fearful, angry, and reactive. 

If you are a super-chill happy mama, you are growing a baby, who as an adult, will likely have much more frontal lobe (and less limbic system) development, resulting in a very reasonable and humane being, who thinks logically instead of reactively, and who will likely be a fabulous, contributing member to society.

In simpler terms:

Stress ball mamas tend to incubate more primitive-like homo sapiens creatures, who need their limbic system (and amygdalas!!!) to be well-developed (to survive saber tooth tiger attacks), and whose primary directive is basic survival;

Chill happy mamas tend to incubate humane beings, who can use their mental prowess (thanks to their logic and reason centers getting plenty of development time in the womb) to address the issues that affect all of us, and make our collective world a better place to live in. 


Now granted, there are always exceptions, but generally, this applies to all human development. 


After birth...well, there's a post on that for parental units.  Connie knows best, indeed. 

OH AND HERE'S ANOTHER BIG ONE:

If you get pregnant and your first thought is "Oh fuck, oh no, not this"  then please, please, PLEASE -- terminate your pregnancy ASAP.  There are enough people on the planet, there's no need to bring an unwanted child into the world, mainly because you will be a shitty incubator.   You are already starting the process with stress.  GET IT OUT! of your body. It's okay.  seriously.  sperm and ova mix all the time to make new life.  doesn't mean it has to develop into something more. 

If you get pregnant and your first though is "YAY! I'm so happy I'm going to be a mother!"  then, yes, please, have that baby, we support you in your journey into motherhood.  May you be a fabulous example to that child of how fabulous being human can be, and encourage that person to surpass everything you've ever accomplished.  

(because that's how we evolve as a species, yo.)

Super beautiful thing?  The more developed the frontal lobes are at birth (reason and logic centers!!!) the more likely they are to continue developing as adults, and laying down more and more neural connections and pathways, creating more concepts, that will take form as tangible realities that may help increase the quality of all of our lives. 

That's the best we could do, for ourselves, and each other. 

MotherLove--thank you Connie, for being a good mother to us all, and teaching us to mother ourselves. Hail Connie!