PRENATAL AND PERINATAL EDUCATION SERIES - ARTICLE 5
PRENATAL AND PERINATAL PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
SOMATIC THEORIES
-Shivakumar Belavadi,
PPNE, Bangalore, India
TOPIC
- Many prenatal and perinatal psychology theories include the subject of
consciousness. Why is this important to PPN? Refer to Wendy Anne
McCarty and William Emerson especially in your answer.
At the basic level “Who am I”, “What Am I here for” and
“How do I engage with others” become
existential questions for every human being. However, at the more esoteric yet
fundamental level, these profound questions seek a larger foundation for life,
living and purpose.
It
is thus inevitable that when one goes into a realm beyond the physical, mental
and emotional components of a human being, we enter the domain of “Consciousness”.
Primal
Questions and Consciousness
Deep questions have engaged
psychologists and PPN practitioners over the decades. Knowledge and
understanding of Consciousness, Awareness, Universe , Soul , deepest layers of
the Mind have been pursued , discussed and debated over years.
William Emerson, quotes RD Laing
in his book Facts of Life as saying “How can one cell generate the billions of
cells I now am? We are impossible, but for the fact that we are”. Clearly this question leads us to a dimension
which transcends the physical, mental and emotional planes we are exposed to
through our senses/ sense organs.
Wendy McCarty poses the primal question thus - “Are we first and foremost biological beings
or nonphysical consciousness? She has postulated a comprehensive understanding
of life, beyond the Newtonian/Objective understanding, to include the dimension
of the ‘spirit’. She states “Our fundamental nature is as
nonphysical consciousness. Our human self is seen as a manifested expression of
our more fundamental primary consciousness.”
She evolves this into a model of Integrated Self – integrating the
transcendental and human dimensions. By itself, this becomes the third
dimension. According to her, babies are teaching this to adults and this is where
we should cognize that there is a spiritual journey from spirit to human life.
The effect and importance of the
concept and understanding of Consciousness to PPNEs can be considered from two
perspectives – (A) Wider Foundational one and (B)
Immediate Operational one:
A. Wider Foundational Premise for Prenatal and
Perinatal Educators
Pioneering work of persons like William Emerson and Wendy McCarty has
widened the purpose of Pre and Perinatal Education, both as a discipline and
practice.
Wendy McCarty states that the prenatal and perinatal experiences affect
the ‘embodiment process of prenate and children’. This is a very important
understanding. It widens the vista of PPNE and enable practitioners to move from the
realm of dealing with ‘traumas and downsides of life’ to creating a ‘developmental
paradigm for a holistic development of life’ (i.e. inclusive of a spiritual dimension) right from the earliest
stages.
A baby’s transcendental perspective is present prior to conception and
thereafter. From this perspective, the incarnating consciousness already has a
sense of a ‘Self or I’. With this understanding, Wendy states that the new proposition
from the prenate to the parents and others with whom it is engaging is - “I
know I am a person. I know you are a person. And, I am seeking connection. I am
seeking relationship”.
William Emerson similarly refers
to an “Unconscious” matrix connecting a prenate or baby with its parents. This
is indeed the realm of “Consciousness”. Emerson alludes to this as the innate
transpersonal cognition. It is the realm of transformational and/or
spiritual energies. He mentions that “transformational energies” refer to the
essential energies that connect us to the Self. He further mentions that such
energies can be accessed through meditation, or other spiritual disciplines.
Emerson postulates on the root
cause of suffering as being the lack of awareness of the spirit / observer/ unconscious
realm in human transactions. He
states that “This lack of awareness has two aspects. The first is repression or
forgetting, wherein unresolved suffering resides in the unconscious, out of
awareness. In order to be externalized and healed, the unconscious material
forces itself into conscious experience and into awareness in dreams, symptoms,
or behaviour, causing suffering in the here-and-now. The second aspect refers
to a historical disregard of prenatal consciousness from the time of conception
onwards. So long as we refuse to acknowledge the consciousness of the prenate,
we cannot make the protective discrimination between what we as parents are
feeling as compared to our feelings for and toward infants in the womb.”
PPNEs deal with lives at the
earliest stage viz. before conception, though pregnancy and the early period
after birth. It is important for the PPNE to recognize all the dimensions of
life and the way things truly are. As Human Beings we have dimensions beyond
body, mind and feelings. But as PPNEs, we are not merely remedying
problems and traumas but dealing with growth and progress in human life – which
has a connect with the Universe or Consciousness.
B. Widening the Operational Bases for PPNEs
At the ground level, when a PPNE
engages in work, a wider awareness of/through Consciousness, helps in linking
up the three players viz. Prenate / Baby, Parents and PPNE.
There are many benefits at the
operational stage with this understanding. Both William Emerson and Wendy
McCarty have touched upon many, including the following:
(a) PPNEs can appreciate better their
own lives and purpose.
(b) Higher spiritual purpose
underlying actions at all levels. Hence the preconception stage becomes a
potent space for a PPNE to act in.
(c) PPNEs can recognise/create a
synergistic effect in the work they carry on with Prenates, Babies, Children
and Parents - the whole being greater than the mere sum of parts. Healing and
resolving traumas in prenatal and perinatal stages becomes more meaningful.
(d) PPNEs should widen the terms
of engagement through empathy, care, compassion and love. It should in turn
make the babies/parents/participants see the larger perspective. This
facilitates a higher dimensional engagement which includes progress, opening of
new doors or opportunities in children, growth, development and connectedness
(e) Working out Holistic
approaches and solutions in dealing with Body, Psyche and emotions with with
transpersonal phenomena, or self-manifestations.
In summary, there is a much wider frame for the functioning of PPNEs. It maybe apt
to end this essay with two quotations of Wendy McCarty –
1. “(PPN) has taken the dynamic understanding of human development
deeper by studying how babies’ earliest experiences in the womb, during birth
and bonding, and as newborns shape and set in motion fundamental life patterns.
These core patterns may be life-enhancing or life-diminishing”.
