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Affect The Mother During: Anything that seriously affect the mother durings the nutrition of the mother may affect the mother during the physical development of the child (5, 1949). The prospective mother should have a well-balanced diet even before pregnancy; otherwise she will have to augment her nutrition during pregnancy. Experiments have shown that optimum diets before and during pregnancy were associated with less toxemia, healthier babies, better teeth, and with fewer premature births, stillbirths, and congenital abnormalities (28, 1957).
Toxins and drugs ingested by the mother may be carried to the unborn child by the same route. It has been found, for example, that during the last six months of pregnancy there is an increase in the fetal heart rate a few minutes after the mother begins to smoke a cigarette. Apparently the toxic products of tobacco smoke pass into the fetal circulation (38, 1938). It is probable that alcohol or any other chemical substance constantly introduced into the bloodstream, if detrimental to the mother, will also affect the mother during the fetus. The same is true of excessive use of barbiturate sleeping pills, aspirin, and other sedatives. These may reduce the oxygen in the blood, and a normal supply of oxygen is of the utmost importance for the welfare of the child. For the same reason, it may also be wise for the expectant mother, especially during the first three months of pregnancy, to avoid long airplane trips which involve radical changes in altitude.
Nevertheless, it is true that if the mother's anxieties and fears are intense or prolonged, the resulting changes in the composition of her blood, glandular secretion, and metabolism can affect the mother during the unborn child. Fear and anger are not merely states of mind; they have physiological effects, and the chemicals produced can enter* the baby's bloodstream. Infants who at birth are overactive and irritable, who do not digest their food well, or who show a high fluctuation in heart rate "often have a history of such disturbing prenatal environment." (37, 1946) If a mother rejects the unborn child, resents having a baby, or dreads the ordeal of birth, these emotions may in some way influence the development of the fetus and the difficulty of labor.
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