Can experiences in the womb affect a child later in life?
Can a child born after it's mother has been through a horrible pregnancy be affected later in life by being neurotic, for instance, not being able to form lasting relationships and have imagined illnesses?If a pregnant woman is tormented by an abusive husband and called filthy names, crying everyday and praying for the child to survive but for her to be released from a life of hell can this affect the child? And, if the woman is able to free herself when the child is less than a year old, can there still be lingering problems for this innocent baby?
The baby doesn't know what you are thinking, or feeling, but if you are startled (for example), you would get a jolt of adrenaline into your bloodstream - it would make your heart-rate rise, and as the blood is circulating your baby would also feel the adrenaline in his or her system, and the baby's heart rate would increase.
So, fear & anxiety, stress and worry, can all affect the baby, and some experts say that long term exposure before birth, to these hormones, can cause anxious babies after birth, which is why it is important to be as calm, peaceful and serene as you can during your pregnancy, and try to avoid things that stress and anger you.
I just watched something on TV a month ago, where scientists studied a group of several hundred people who are now about 64 years old. These people were all born to mothers in Holland during the last year of WWII. Their mothers were under tremendous stress, there was the fear of starvation, imprisonment in Concentration Camps, the fear of living in an occupied country.
The results of the tests on these people showed that the stress hormones that flooded their systems, before birth, resulted in a very high percentage of these people being born with stress - they were infants who cried a lot, there was a high incidence of Depression, Bi-Polar disorder, suicide attempts, Anger Management issues ....... many effects that the researchers believed was due to the stress and fear that their mothers had during their pregnancies.
These were things that these people endured, that effected them throughout their whole lives - it caused difficulties in their marriages, in their relationships with their children, in the workplace - every aspect of their lives.
Good Luck.