What We Learn Before We Are Born Annie Murphy Paul Analysis

Annie Murphy Paul presents an intriguing Ted talk with “What We Learn Before We Are Born”. She answers many questions, the most important being, when does learning actually begin? I agree that most people would blurt out an answer such as, when a child begins school or at birth. Her answer is more complex and harder to understand. It’s the nine months before birth. This study of what happens to the fetus before birth is called fetal origins. It’s a field of study that only developed around two decades ago. Fetal origins dives into to the nine months a mother is carrying her child and studies how everything outside and within affects the fetus. This study is crucial because the efforts and studies of these scientist and psychologist are promoting
So, I have always been curious, could this really be true? Paul says scientist know that flavors of foods mothers eat travel to the amniotic fluid and the baby will later prefer those foods. So what a mother craves and eats a lot of through her pregnancy can most defiantly affect our food preference as we are born and grow. One study gave some mothers a large amount of carrot juice to consume, versus another group who were just given water. The results found that babies preferred carrot juice more if their mother was in the group that consumed the large amount of carrot juice during pregnancy. Studies also found that the sound of a mother’s voice travels through the mother to the fetus. The voices from outside are muffled at first, but a mother’s voice reaches the fetus and a baby recognizes it when born. I found it very interesting that a baby would even respond to their mother’s favorite soap opera. I guess this explains why as a child I would sit and watch soap operas with my mom while she cleaned. She was grooming me to be her from the get
Outside factors happen beyond our control, and even things that our mothers may do. Teratogens are factors that can cause malformation to the embryo. Paul discussed two significant types of outside factors that could negatively impact the fetus, malnutrition and post-traumatic stress disorder. Babies who’s mother’s were malnourished while pregnant left their child predisposed to heart disease, obesity, and more still births. During 9/11, expectant mothers experienced PTSD and studies have shown that those babies could be more likely to develop PTSD as