Pre-natal power | Grace Branjerdporn | TEDxUQ
[Applause] what did you do last Mother's Day some people like to give their mums flowers and chocolates others like to write a meaningful card of encouragement to say thank you to their mums my mum likes to go out for lunch to spend time with family whichever way you spend Mother's Day today I want you to take a moment to reflect on the significance of this occasion why do we celebrate Mother's Day as you ponder this question some reasons that may spring to mind include how your mum tirelessly supports you how she listens to you through thick and thin or maybe how she cooked amazing food and today I want to add another reason to your list about why Mother's are just so pivotal to our lives and this may be a reason that you may have never considered before so to do this I want to tell you about my research so let's start with a pop quiz behind me you're going to see some pictures and I want you to raise your hand as to which one you think is the correct answer the question is when do you think the bond between a mother and her child begins is it a when a baby first begins to speak and says its first words such as Mumma or is it B when a baby is first born in those first few moments after birth as a mother cradles her newborn in her arms as she lovingly looks down her love swells up inside of her or finally is it C during pregnancy before birth a mother begins to connect with her child who thinks it is a put your hand up who thinks it's B and who thinks at sea great work exactly right the bond between a mother and her child begins well before a mother even lays eyes on her child and this develops in those nine months of pregnancy and this is what researchers like to call prenatal attachment over the course of pregnancy a mother begins to imagine what her baby will be like when a child will look like she has hopes dreams and expectations for her child she may start preparing the nursery throw a baby shower start talking to her unborn child she may even start feeling excited and happy as well as maybe quitting smoking and starting eating healthfully all of these emotions these thoughts and all of these behaviors represent this bond that develops during pregnancy it's a little bit like when you prepare for a holiday I recently went to Europe and I remember all of the preparation that was involved before the trip with booking flights hotels figuring out where I wanted to go and getting ready for all of the new adventures in the same way mothers prepare practically emotionally as well as physically for the newest addition to their family and so my research tried to look at how prenatal attachment can then have a bearing on that their baby later on in life to see what the flow-on effects were and so for my research we tracked women all the way from the early stages of pregnancy right up until birth and when the babies were about 6 to 12 months old we recruited mothers from the motto mothers Hospital in Brisbane which is the largest paternity hospital in Queensland here we ask mothers to tell us about how they felt and how they behaved and thought towards their unborn child and we tried to see if this was linked to how an infant is able to process their sensory information around them every day we are processing and encountering a myriad of sensory information from what we hear touch see taste and feel but not only that but also our internal body sense one of those is called proprioception so to demonstrate this sense that we have we're going to do an activity can everyone please put their index finger in the air now I want you to put it in front of you I want you to close your eyes now and slowly bring your index finger to touch your nose now open your eyes once you've done that okay put your hands down who is able to touch their nose put your hands up great so why is it that we can do this even though we have closed our eyes and this is because we have receptors in our joints in our bones that tell us where our body is in space and where our body parts are in relation to each other and so every day we are processing all of this sensory information around us infants for example when they're playing they might have to process the visual information of all the colors and all the objects of their toys or perhaps maybe the textures that they're feeling of the Feltz in the cubes as well as maybe the plastics of the toys or take for example not be changing the baby may be feeling the mother adjust the nappy on them or maybe even be smelling some things if it's full also when you look at feeding we can see that babies are processing the taste of the pureed food for example whether it's bitter sour or sweet and may be hearing some things such as the mum and dad talking to each other or maybe the mum saying open mmm so you can see here that babies are always processing a range of sensory information what we know from research and what we know when we talk to families is that some families have children who enjoy sensory information who are not phased not fast who a calm cool and collected when faced with a range of varied differing and unpredictable sensory information in contrast we find that some children are more distractible more startles irritated and even overwhelmed when faced with this unpredictable sensory stimuli and so my research tried to see whether or not before birth the bond between a mother and a child could have a bearing on this and so what we did we looked at how mothers responded to their child before pregnancy and we tried to see if it had a link with an infant's ability to process sensory information at about six to twelve months after birth we asked mothers to tell us how their child responded to a range of sensory stimuli such as loud noises or maybe bright lights and we asked the mums to tell us how irritable startled or may be calm or soothed they were by this sensory information our results showed that mothers who had a stronger more affectionate more loving bond with their unborn child before birth were more likely to have children who are adaptable who are calm and soothed and also happy when they experienced a range of sensory stimuli in contrast mothers who struggled or had a snake ative bond with their unborn child or more likely to have children who were more irritated and distracted by all of this sensory information and we know that sensory processing skills are vital because it lays the foundation to learn out of other skills such as being able to master the skill of talking understanding language using your hands to pick up objects and write as well as using your bodies to learn to learn skills such as how to walk crawl and jump and so what we know from my research is that we can give kids a head start to life even before they're born by supporting mothers to develop a strong warm and loving connection with their baby before they're born we can unleash the potential of the next generation through assisting mothers to develop this warm bond and so today I want to give you three tips so that you can walk away so you can support either yourself to develop a strong bond either now or later in life or if you're a dad Ram Carin uncle aunty then you can maybe support your relative as they're going through pregnancy if you're not in that life stage hopefully you can tuck away these strategies for later and so the first one I want to give you today is to write in a pregnancy journal writing in a pregnancy journal is a great way for you to reflect on your feelings thoughts as well as some of your expectations for one for when the baby is born a lot of how we parent our children is from the way that we were parented so being aware of all of those experiences in the past and how this contributes to who you are today is a really great way for you to be able to be mindful of your parenting this is also a really good way if you wanted to put ultrasound images of your baby so that you can start thinking of your child not just as a thesis but as a real person you may even like to put in pictures of pregnancy photos to see how your body and your womb is changing over the course of the nine months through this pregnancy journal you can write about how you're feeling and all those thoughts so that you're beginning to form that connection with your child in addition to writing in a pregnancy journal the second tip I want to give you today is to massage the outside of your womb as you massage the outside of the womb you're beginning to feel the movements of the fetus and you can get your partner involved as well by getting him to help massage the womb as well which is a great way for your partner to connect with the baby as well as for you and your partner to foster the connection as well so get your sweet smelling lotion massage the outside of the womb and this is a great way for you to bond with your child you may even like to practice talking singing or even reading children's books to your child during this time as it enables you to practice your parenting skills as well as helps familiarize your baby to your voice so through this massaging this can help you to develop that strong connection with your child and thirdly I would encourage you to join a prenatal or pregnancy yoga class through the slow rhythmical movements and through the deep breathing that you practice this enables people to relax unwind and de-stress which helps you to build a better connection with your unborn child this is also a great way to meet mothers who are going through the same situation as you so that you can feel that camaraderie and sense of support around you this is also a great way to build those muscles in your pelvic floor so that you're ready for the birth of your child so through riding in a pregnancy Journal massaging the outside of your womb as well as joining a pregnancy yoga class hopefully through these simple steps you will be able to foster a strong loving and warm bond with your unborn child and in doing so we can give kids the best chance to life and so next time next month ursday when you're thinking about what to write in your Mother's Day card don't forget to write and say thank you to your mum for loving you before you were born thank you [Applause]