Book twenty-one: Origins by Annie Murphy Paul

My pregnancy was fairly uneventful and I did an okay job (I think) of making sure I ate healthy foods, took the recommended supplements, received prenatal care, etc. But Hen still might be doomed.

This book highlights some recent findings about how the fetus and mother interact during pregnancy. Through various points in history how that relationship has been viewed has changed - women have been thought of as vessels, the placenta was believed to be a protective atmosphere keeping harmful things away from the fetus, doctors/scientists believed the mother could affect the fetus but not the other way around. All these things are discussed and new findings are reported.

It turns out a fetus can make movements so small they are not felt by the mother but her body responds to them just the same. (The doctor in this study has a theory about the "fetal-maternal dance". She believes the baby is "training you to pay attention to him, to hear his cries, to get up in the middle of the night. He's saying, 'Get ready--here I come!" It is estimated a mother can only discern about 16% of the fetus's movement so that is a lot of unnoticed time when the mother is responding to her child but doesn't know it. Cool, eh?

Exposure to the stress hormone cortisol can enhance the fetus's development.

"To the question of whether such stress unfavorably affects pregnant women and their fetuses...it depends. It depends on whether you work long hours, at physically demanding tasks. It depends on whether you're energized by a fast pace and a load of responsibilities, or exhausted by them. It depends on whether you have a sense of control at work, and a source of emotional support at home...Most people...do best when they have a moderate but manageable amount of stress in their lives."

Regarding ante- and postnatal care for pregnant women.

"When women in this country are offered antenatal leave, a recent study shows, birth outcomes improve on at least one important measure...Those who took time off...were four times less likely to require a caesarean delivery...'But in this country we're not very generous to pregnant women -- we don't have a culture that encourages pregnant women to take care of themselves.' If for no other reason...granting antenatal leave makes good economic sense, since C-sections cost more and require more recovery time for the mother."

Concerns about chemicals.

"Hormonelike chemicals like DES, and likely BPA, are not toxic in the familiar fashion of say, lead or asbestos; rather, they wreak havoc by interfering with the body's natural hormonal signaling system. They may be capable of disturbing development even in small amounts -- indeed, they may be especially disruptive in small amounts. At high doses, our bodies recognize them as foreign, and protective mechanisms kick in; at low doses, our bodies are lulled into a dangerous complacence. Given that development is never more rapid or more consequential than during gestation, fetuses are especially vulnerable to the action of the endocrine disruptors...It's the timing, not the dose, that makes the poison."

Homosexuality related to birth order.

"This 'fraternal birth order effect' has now been documented in more than a dozen studies: the more older brothers a man has, the better the chance that he will be gay."

Take your folic acid and your vitamin D if you are pregnant or even thinking of trying to become pregnant. Folic acid reduces the likelihood of your child being born with spina bifida. Vitamin D lowers the risk of asthma in children. Also, eat fish. A study conducted in 2005 shows that greater fish consumption during pregnancy is associated with better infant congnition. Just be sure to choose fish low in mercury and high in the "good" omega-3 fats.

21 down plus 31 to go.