Duh!

     Okay, so I know not everyone is interested in evidence based practice. I also know that most people aren't aware of all of the "evidence" that is out there. Who has time to look it all up? Do all the research? And then integrate the information into how we live our lives?
     Evidence based practice is a whole string of blogs yet to be tackled, for now I am thinking about the evidence our children are presenting to us everyday.
     ADHD, ADD, food allergies, obesity, behavioral issues, mental health diagnoses', children commiting violent acts, suicidal two year olds... I hate to state the obvious but....
     Something is wrong here!!!!
  
    There are many many issues at play here. A million and one theories, tons of therapies, medications, treatments.
   I have a question. What would the world be like if we paid attention to our children from the beginning, from conception, from preconception?
   For those who look to science for proof, etc. there is a growing body of "evidence" indicating that what happens to babys in the womb effects them throughout there lives, even that what their moms experience prior to their conception effects them. http://www.birthpsychology.com/apppah/
   For me it seems obvious. Duh!
   We know emotions have chemical and physical manifestations. We know mom's hormones mix with baby's, they share the same blood!
     Everything that "happens" in the womb effects the baby, that's where they are formed! Where their brains, hearts, and integrated systems are created! The chemical structure of their nervous systems founded. Of course their environments have an effect!!  And why wouldn't this effect them for the rest of their lives, it's their body after all, that stays with them!
  People are amazing, bodies are amazing. People are adaptable, maleable, their capacity to withstand trauma, to grow, to flourish, to live thru incredible experiences despite incredible defecits is hardly believable. We are truly miracles, each and every one of us.
   Yet I can't help but imagine the possibilities. If every baby was wanted, loved, adored, and respected prior to conception....
 
              There is a tribe in Africa where the birth date of a child is counted not from when they've been born,  
              nor  from when they are conceived but from the day that the child was a thought in its mother's mind.
             And when a woman decides that she will have a child, she goes off and sits under a tree, by herself,   
             and she listens until she can hear the song of the child that wants to come. And after she's heard the  
             song of this child, she comes back to the man who will be the child's father, and teaches it to him. And
             then, when they make love to physically conceive the child, some of that time they sing the song of the
             child, as a way to invite it.
             And then, when the mother is pregnant, the mother teaches that child's song to the midwives and the
            old  women of the village, so that when the child is born, the old women and the people around her
              sing  the child's song to welcome it. And then, as the child grows up, the other villagers are taught the 
             child's song. If the child falls, or hurts its knee, someone picks it up and sings its song to it. Or perhaps
             the child does something wonderful, or goes through the rites of puberty, then as a way of honoring this
             person, the people of the village sing his or her song.
            And it goes this way through their life. In marriage, the songs are sung, together. And finally, when this  
            child is lying in bed, ready to die, all the villagers know his or her song, and they sing--for the last time--
            the song to that person.
                            From http://birthpsychology.com/lifebefore/early2.html

                    
   "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will be as one" - John Lennon "Imagine"