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Birth The Baby Already: Does the baby at birth the baby already have some dim ideas? Nobody knows, because no evidence can be obtained on this question. The baby cannot tell us. However, the level of his mental development may be reflected in the nature of his physical response to various stimuli.
birth the baby already means changing from one type of environment to another. From the baby's point of view it is a most uncomfortable move. He has been suddenly transferred from a soft; warm resting place that requires almost no effort on his part into a relatively cold, hard, uncomfortable, exacting world. He has emerged from an environment which presented few stimuli into one that offers many confusing stimuli. During a difficult delivery the baby may suffer lack of oxygen, or even sustain physical injury—brain damage, injury to the sense organs, or bone fractures. It is no wonder that a good case history requires information about the conditions of birth the baby already.
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 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 the baby already 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 the baby already, these emotions may in some way influence the development of the fetus and the difficulty of labor.
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