What a child feels in the womb: the influence of mother's emotions on the fetus. Can a child in the womb be harmed by bending over and other careless actions? The baby in the womb is protected

Many women carry a fetus without knowing what does a baby feel in the womb. But his emotions begin their development early. With the help of modern research, scientists have learned amazing things about a small child who is not yet born.

How does the mother's condition affect the child?

As soon as the baby's development in the womb begins, every word has an impact on him. A woman is advised to especially monitor her physical and psychological condition in the first and third trimesters, as they are quite difficult.

From the 3rd month, the baby begins to feel touch, hear sounds, and feel emotions. If the expectant mother is calm, then he calms down, but aggressive speech makes him restless. If you repeat certain phrases often, the baby in your mother’s belly is able to remember them.

How does the child feel?

The baby in the mother’s belly feels feelings due to the hormones that appear in the mother’s body. If a woman is scared or upset, stress hormones are produced. They reach the baby through the bloodstream, so he begins to feel the same feelings. If the expectant mother is in a calm, happy state, then endorphins, hormones of happiness, appear in the blood. As a result, the baby also receives them, which makes him happy. Such processes are observed even at the beginning of pregnancy.

In the second trimester, hearing and taste buds develop, and the eyes open. But what does a child feel in the womb?

1. Doctors noticed that during pregnancy the baby grimaces from the bitter taste of the amniotic fluid, but he willingly absorbs it if it tastes sweet. When a pregnant woman eats food, the amniotic fluid absorbs the taste of the food. If a woman ate sweets, then they become sweet.
2. Until the 17th week, the baby already has acute hearing. Sounds from the environment reach him. This could be a voice, musical compositions. At such a young age, the child remembers frequent sounds, so after birth, when he hears them again, he calms down. Studies have proven that classical music has a positive effect on the baby, it puts him to sleep. Parents are encouraged to talk to their baby in the womb so that he recognizes familiar voices after birth. They will also calm him down.
3. A baby in the second trimester feels when someone touches his stomach. This is especially noticeable in the later stages. When a mother strokes her belly, she is able to feel the baby. He can make a response push, begin to arch.
4. One can only imagine what a child feels in the womb. After all, his feelings are different. It has been proven that he begins to dream. When a person sleeps and dreams about something, his eyeballs move. This is exactly the phenomenon that can be seen in a baby at 22 weeks of pregnancy.
5. The child feels all the woman’s experiences. And they especially often appear before childbirth. Often, the expectant mother is afraid before the birth of her child, and the baby also feels this fear. For this reason, doctors advise the woman to try to calm down and communicate with the baby during labor so that he can be convinced that nothing bad is happening. This will make the child born much calmer.

How does the child react?

There is a huge bond between a woman and her child. The baby reacts to changes in the mother's mood. If trouble happens, he will also worry about it. For this reason, during pregnancy there is no need to worry about trifles. After all, a child cries only with his mother, so you should avoid tears.

If the mother is in a great mood, she feels joy, then the baby feels good. Despite the fact that the child is still in the womb, he knows how to smile and have fun.

But the baby feels not only joy and happiness. He also reacts to stressful situations and sadness. If the mother is depressed, her mood worsens, and the hormone cortisol enters the bloodstream, which reaches the fetus. In such a situation, few people suspect what the child feels in the womb. But his mood also worsens, causing him to feel sad and even start crying. This has been proven by scientists.

What is good and what is bad for the fetus

The baby feels everything:

1. care;
2. joy;
3. Love;
4. anger;
5. mother's crying.

Some emotions of a pregnant woman have a good effect on the fetus, while others have a bad effect. First of all, it is worth remembering that all the feelings of a mother are transmitted to her child. Anger and screaming have a bad effect on the baby, but joy and tenderness give him pleasure.

Experts recommend monitoring sounds, conversations and even thoughts. It will be useful to read fairy tales aloud and watch positive films. It is worth giving up thrillers, melodramas, action films, and horrors, as they evoke strong emotions. It's better not to listen to heavy music.

Every woman should think about what a child feels in the womb. She needs to learn to control her feelings and emotions so that a child grows up filled with happiness and joy. Your little treasure must be protected from negativity and anger.

During pregnancy, all the sensations of the expectant mother become more acute; she looks with different eyes at seemingly completely ordinary and simple things. Pregnancy not only heightens perceptions, but also gives rise to unreasonable fears, one of the most common being the fear of harming the baby in the tummy.

Expectant mothers are afraid of harming their unborn child. Such experiences can leave a pregnant woman exhausted, causing loss of sleep and constant anxiety. Our expert, a medical psychologist, will tell you how to get rid of this specific fear and feel light and comfortable during pregnancy.

Marina, 23 years old, student

I can’t sleep, in my sleep I’m afraid that something might happen to my child through my fault. I'm afraid of damaging his little body or even crushing him while he sleeps. I constantly wake up and listen to whether he is moving or not.

Marina is pregnant for the first time and she cannot yet accept the naturalness of pregnancy, trust nature and herself. Often women think that they can control the processes that occur in their body during pregnancy. And when they realize that this is beyond their control, they begin to worry.

Such fears are unfounded. It is so arranged by nature that the mother’s body is the safest place for the child. Everything the baby needs, warmth, nutrition, protection - all this is provided by the mother’s body. The muscular layers of the uterus reliably protect the child from the influence of the outside world. The amniotic sac provides the baby with his personal space and does not allow him to be disturbed.

Of course, pregnant women should not sleep on their stomachs, and they will not be able to do so. The most optimal sleeping position for the expectant mother is on her side, and for better comfort you can use special semicircular pillows, carefully laying the tummy. This position will allow the expectant mother to fully relax, which is a very necessary condition for the proper development of the baby.

Daria, 31 years old

I’m very worried that when I didn’t yet know about my pregnancy, I drank champagne at a friend’s birthday party. How will this affect my child? I feel guilty before him.

Of course, drinking alcohol during pregnancy has a detrimental effect on the development of the child. This is a well-known and long-proven fact. But this applies to systematic abuse, and not to one glass of champagne. And the harm from terminating a pregnancy for this reason is much more significant.

However, if you already know about your pregnancy, give up alcoholic beverages and smoking - this will protect your baby from developmental defects. Passive smoking is no less harmful than active smoking. Therefore, you should avoid places where people smoke.

What should you do to make your pregnancy easy and comfortable:

Our expert psychoanalyst will tell you how to overcome increased anxiety during pregnancy, and what causes it to occur in expectant parents.

Similar thoughts often occur to pregnant women and their husbands. This is understandable - the pregnancy situation is shrouded in mystery. Everyone knows how conception and fetal development occurs on a physiological level, but why it does not happen for everyone or does not immediately remain a mystery. Even when pregnancy becomes a fait accompli, worries and prejudices do not leave parents.

Still would! Intrauterine development of the fetus, the birth of a child, the transition to parenthood and awareness of one’s place and role in the chain of generations - all this is too important not to worry about!

• In addition, the fact that conception and development of the fetus occurs inside the mother’s body reduces the possibility of constant monitoring and control on the part of the parents and “turns on” their fantasies about the fragility of the child and their own omnipotence .
• Parents feel like giants, in whose power is the life and death of the child. Such fantasies can “paralyze” spontaneity, disrupt the natural flow of life and interfere with the enjoyment and conscious living of such a special period as pregnancy.

Such thoughts and fantasies are very often manifestations of anxiety. As a rule, an increase in anxiety levels is characteristic of the first and third trimester of pregnancy.

In the first case, the woman’s body is faced with unprecedented stress (in the case of the first pregnancy) - something appears inside that is defined as “not its own” (the genetic material of the child’s father). Sometimes this contributes to the development of unconscious fantasies of capture, colonization and enslavement, which in turn awakens one's own defensive aggression.

It should be noted that all of these are unconscious fantasies, which means that they are not accessible to awareness, but actively influence behavior and self-awareness, and provoke certain defense mechanisms. For example, a defense against fantasies of one’s own aggression in response to a foreign invasion may be obsessive thoughts about possible harm to the child in the womb.

In the third trimester of pregnancy, a natural increase in anxiety is associated with preparation for childbirth, the birth of a child, and the transition to an active role as a mother.

If the anxiety is unbearable, we recommend contacting a specialist, since the mother’s excessive anxiety can affect her physical condition and, as a result, affect the course of pregnancy and the condition of the fetus. In most cases, after childbirth, the nature of the mother’s relationship with the child remains and continues to influence the formation of his/her personality.

• Do not go to extremes: a fragile child is an omnipotent me.

A lot depends on the child too! A certain vitality is already inherent in the fetus, because part of it is a spermatozoon, which, one in a hundred million, managed to penetrate the egg!

• Lead a lifestyle recommended by your doctor, which takes into account your situation and your medical indicators.
• In case of intense anxiety, consult a psychotherapist.

Pregnancy lasts on average 280 days. All this time the baby lives in a “personal” house - the womb. But who cares about his comfort and provides him with all the amenities?

Immediately after fertilization, the egg is surrounded by touching attention from every cell of the female body. But the most important work is in the amniotic membrane, the umbilical cord, and the amniotic fluid of the placenta.

Work clothes

The membranes begin to form immediately after implantation of the embryo into the uterine mucosa. Having united with the placenta, they form the amniotic sac. The membranes have a lot of work during pregnancy: they synthesize various substances, provide the necessary immune responses, “command” the exchange and circulation of fluid in the mother-fetus system, remove fetal metabolic products, and carry out gas exchange. They also have purely “male” functions: in the early stages of development of the embryo, take care of its nutrition and reliably protect it from bacteria and viruses that can reach the baby from the vagina. It is possible to cope with all this work only if there is complete coordination of actions.

Born in a shirt

During childbirth, the lower pole of the amniotic sac helps dilate the cervix. The walls of the amniotic sac burst, after which the anterior waters leave. This happens almost always. But sometimes children are born in a bubble, like in a “shirt,” who are called lucky. However, being born in a “shirt” is still a birth pathology, and not a lucky omen, so the obstetrician, having established the “unwillingness” of the bladder to rupture on its own, performs a simple operation (amnitomy), piercing it. This saves mother and baby from complications, including such serious ones as premature placental abruption and fetal asphyxia (cessation of oxygen supply).

Water all around soda

Amniotic fluid is the fluid surrounding the fetus with the umbilical cord. They allow the child to actively move, protect the fetus and umbilical cord from external mechanical influences, and participate in the metabolism between mother and fetus. The baby in the womb regularly swallows water, which changes its composition every hour by l/3. From the 19th week, the child begins to distinguish their taste. During pregnancy, the volume of amniotic fluid gradually increases (up to 500-1500 ml), but the mathematical ratio to the volume of the fetus decreases. Therefore, towards the end of pregnancy the baby becomes less mobile.

Road to life

The umbilical cord provides blood circulation to the fetus. Outwardly, it resembles a spirally twisted cord of a bluish color. Its usual length is 50-60 cm, diameter 1.5-2 cm. One end of the umbilical cord is attached to the baby’s navel, the other to the placenta. Moving along the two umbilical arteries, the blood of the baby in the placenta is enriched with oxygen and nutrients, freed from carbon dioxide and metabolic products. Then it returns to the fetus via the umbilical vein.

Pie for baby

Where is she located

The location of the placenta depends on where the fertilized egg is inserted. Sometimes the placenta is initially located at the bottom of the uterus, as if blocking the baby’s exit: the so-called placenta previa. The main reasons for this are: dystrophic changes in the uterine mucosa that occur after abortion and childbirth, tumors and abnormal development of the uterus. Fortunately, the uterus is able to tighten the placenta and correct its not very good position, which excludes the possibility of natural childbirth.

But this does not mean that any infectious disease will necessarily arise. After all, a fairly powerful defense is on guard - the immune system. Its task is to recognize and destroy potentially dangerous microorganisms. And with those that do not pose a serious threat, maintain peaceful coexistence.

This picture is usually observed in a healthy body. But it can look completely different if we are talking about a pregnant woman. Pregnancy is a special condition, and the health of not only the woman herself, but also the unborn child depends on how it proceeds. Therefore, infection entering the body of a pregnant woman is not always safe.

An infectious agent can reach a child in two ways. The first is from the mother’s bloodstream through the placenta. The second is the ascending method - from the woman’s birth canal to the uterus, causing infection of the amniotic membranes and waters, and then the fetus itself.

Ideally, a child is always protected from infection by at least two barriers: on the one hand, the maternal immune system, and on the other hand, the amniotic membranes and placenta. If for some reason this protection is weakened, it becomes possible for the fetus to become infected while still in the womb. More favorable conditions for this are created during childbirth, when the membranes rupture, and thus one of the barriers disappears. If there is any infection in the mother's birth canal, the risk of infection will be quite high.

Infection in the fetus does not always lead to serious consequences. The outcome of infection is determined by several factors, namely: the state of the mother's immune system, the duration of pregnancy and the aggressiveness of the infectious agent.

The first twelve weeks of pregnancy are a very important period, because it is at this time that the formation and formation of the main organs and systems of the unborn child occurs. If at this time the infection penetrates in large quantities to the fetal tissues, then malformations of the corresponding organs may occur. When gross defects are formed that are incompatible with life, the fetus dies in utero and the pregnancy ends in miscarriage. The same outcome is observed if the infection damages the placenta, since this disrupts the nutrition of the fetus, which leads to its death.

More favorable in terms of prognosis are cases where the amount of the infectious agent is insignificant. Under such circumstances, developmental defects can also occur, but they, as a rule, do not lead to the death of the child, but cannot be cured. An example is the effects caused by the rubella virus. This virus selectively affects the eyes, so if a woman has rubella in the early stages of pregnancy, the child may be born with visual impairment.

By the end of the twelfth week of pregnancy, the formation of fetal organs ends, so infection of a woman after this period no longer threatens fetal development defects. However, this does not mean that there is no risk at all. The infection, reaching the fetus, can cause inflammatory changes in the placenta (placentitis) or in its membranes (chorioamnionitis). In both cases, the child suffers, since the placenta is the organ through which the fetus receives nutrients and oxygen. And if this organ fails, the child’s nutrition is disrupted. The outcome may be childbirth earlier than expected or on time, but the child is born weak.

If the infection penetrates to the fetus itself, then it is born with a congenital infectious process, for example, congenital pneumonia. Directly during childbirth, the child becomes infected with those pathogenic microorganisms that are located in the mother’s birth canal. These are so-called urogenital infections, which include chlamydia, mycoplasma, ureaplasma, trichomonas, gonococci, Candida yeast, and genital herpes virus. The peculiarity of these infections is that they do not exist alone, but, as a rule, are combined with each other. So, there is a risk that during childbirth the child may become infected with not one, but several infections at once.

When a new life is born under a woman’s heart, a lot changes in her own. Pregnancy heightens perception and causes the expectant mother to naturally worry about the safety of the fetus. The woman begins to be cautious, avoids unnecessary body movements, and gets nervous, which causes her some discomfort. How justified are fears and how to avoid them so that pregnancy is comfortable and easy?

Natural protection of the fetus

By giving a woman the opportunity to give birth to children, nature also took care of the safety of the fetus. While in the womb, the baby is reliably protected from mechanical damage by a double barrier of amniotic fluid and amniotic fluid. The mother's organs also work to protect it. In the early stages of pregnancy, the baby in the womb is covered by the pelvic bones, muscles of the uterus and abdominal tissue.

After the 5th month, when the uterus increases in size and extends beyond the pelvic bones, one of the protective barriers ceases to be functional. Only the internal protection of the fetus and the abdominal wall remain.

Starting from the middle of the second trimester of gestation, a woman should be more careful in her movements. A blow or fall can cause miscarriage or premature birth.

Is a mother's bending over dangerous for the baby in her womb?

Bending over during pregnancy is not dangerous for the baby if done correctly. When bending, you can bend your knees so that part of the load is transferred from the spine to the legs. When leaning forward, you need to hold your stomach with your hand, preventing tension in the spine. Do not bend sharply so as not to injure the child.

What to do if a woman falls?

• If you fall, do not rush to get up;
• sit for a while before standing up to avoid dizziness;
• stay calm, don't get nervous;
• If pain occurs after the blow, bleeding begins, or your water breaks, call an ambulance immediately.

Even if the fall did not cause any negative consequences, it should not be completely ignored. It is better to go to the doctor and check the child’s condition. Wounds and abrasions caused by a fall must be treated with antiseptics to avoid infection. For peace of mind, you can take a sedative with a natural composition (motherwort or valerian).

Can mother's clothes harm the baby?

Today, maternity clothing is a whole industry that offers expectant mothers anatomically comfortable underwear and clothing models for all seasons. To forestall the fears of some mothers, let us say right away that an elastic band for panties or a thin belt cannot harm the baby. Some women are prejudiced against the bandage, and in vain. The bandage after 23-24 weeks helps to safely carry the fetus, it removes some of the load from the spine and supports the abdominal cavity, reducing its pressure on the uterus.

Precautionary measures

Simple rules of behavior on the street during pregnancy will help a woman avoid annoying situations with falls and bumps. Take note:

• do not go for walks alone, take someone close to you with you;
• give up high-heeled shoes;
• When going up stairs or on an escalator, hold onto the railings tightly;
• if the street is slippery, move slowly, bending your knees slightly;
• Don't put your hands in your pockets.

When carrying a child, a woman has to change the rhythm of life. Now that she is responsible not only for herself, she should be more attentive to physical activity and behavior on the street. However, you shouldn’t slow down too much for fear of moving too much. The baby is well protected by nature itself; the mother can only correctly distribute the load and exercise reasonable caution.