Prenatal Development and Parents' Lived Experiences: How Early Events Shape Our Psychophysiology and Relationships

by Ann Diamond Weinstein PhD, Michael Shea PhD (Foreword by)

Overview

The influence of the preconception and prenatal period on child development and parent-child relationships.

This book presents recent knowledge, research, and theory about the earliest developmental period—from conception to birth—which holds even greater consequences for the health and development of the human organism than was previously understood. Theory and research in multiple disciplines provide the foundation for the exploration of how experiences during conception and time in the womb; during and after birth; and experiences with caregivers and the family system in the early postnatal period impact an individual physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially over their life span.

Knowledge drawn from numerous fields highlights the opportunity for parents-to-be and the practitioners who care for them to intentionally support the cultivation of nurturing internal and external environments during the preconception, prenatal, and early parenting periods. Theory and research from the fields of psychology, medicine, psychophysiology, epigenetics, and traumatology, among others, suggest that doing so will support lifelong multidimensional aspects of healthy development in children and adults and may also benefit future generations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393711066
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/30/2016
Series:	Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Ann Diamond Weinstein, PhD, is a Preconception, Prenatal and Early Parenting Specialist with a doctorate in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology. In her consultation practice she provides education and coaching to individuals, families, professionals and groups on issues related to preconception, pregnancy, birth and early parenting experiences, and their impacts over the lifespan.

Editorial Reviews

"In Prenatal Development and Parents’ Lived Experiences, Ann Weinstein takes the reader through a beautifully-detailed journey . . . . Weinstein gives credence to the theory that the mother-baby relationship is fully intertwined along a continuum that begins before conception, and that examining any part of the relationship exclusively misses the entirety of the more complex unit. . . . [A] book to be read and re-read, digested slowly and deliberately, and kept on every practitioner’s shelf for ongoing referral."

Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health

"In presenting qualitative and quantitative research regarding pre- and perinatal phenomena, Weinstein both proves and explains the value she has found in the focus of her career… This book earns its place on the shelves by expressing and proving the need of attention to pre- and perinatal effect."

Somatic Psychotherapy Today

"At last, scholars, clinicians, and parents have a compendium that provides solid evidence for the life-long effects of the lived experiences of babies from pre-conception through the post-natal period. Ann Diamond Weinstein strategically brings together research and insights from numerous fields to inform everyone concerned with lifelong mental and physical health. This very readable book will become the reference for anyone concerned with foundations of health, the science of thriving, and resilience over the lifespan."

Marti Glenn

"This important work elegantly weaves together a range of perspectives to show how the environment, and in particular traumatic stress, shapes a woman's experience of the childbearing year and that of her developing infant. Weinstein provides abundant evidence to highlight the prenatal period as a critical phase of development, and urges us to cross our artificial disciplinary boundaries to come together in a meaningful way to create nurturing environments for women and children."

Mickey Sperlich

"Compassionate plea for awareness of potential lifelong, epigenetic, transgenerational effects of adverse maternal bio-psychosocial experience on the neonate's developing autonomic nervous system from the moment of conception. This integration of genomics, physiology, neuroscience, psychology, and humanism reminds healthcare providers that every interaction with a pregnant woman could impact the delicate placental lifeline between a mother and the precious being within her womb."

Patricia I. Gerbarg

"The difference between surviving and thriving begins in the womb. Ann Diamond Weinstein effectively distills essential research, knowledge, and understandings of prenatal origins of postnatal neurobiology, psychology, and relationship dynamics. She compellingly presents the vital importance of gaining expertise to effectively assess high-risk mothers' needs, as well as to compassionately support women and girls and their babies to feel safe, to heal unresolved trauma and loss, and to experience a positive reciprocal mother-baby relationship during pregnancy."

Wendy Anne McCarty