Will Garbh Sanskar and pregnancy actually make the baby smarter?
Did Abhimanyu, Prahlada, Hanuman, and Ashtavakra really learn from stories they heard in the womb?
Believe it or not, babies can hear, imbibe, and learn in some unusual ways while in the womb, and what they receive as inputs has a powerful role in shaping their minds and temperaments.
The fundamental principle underlying Garbh Sanskar practices, which means education in the womb, is that the unborn baby is able to sense, feel, listen, dream, and respond to outside stimuli and environments like thoughts and feelings of the mother, music, and parents talking to it.
In this article, you will know if these claims are true or not. If music has any benefits beyond general relaxation for mom and baby.
The Role of Hormones in Fetal Brain Development
Did you know that more than 60 percent of a baby’s brain development happens in the womb?
What directly affects it is hormonal bathing or the shower of hormones that the mom’s body releases.
Now, is it the shower of stress hormones like cortisol or the good hormones generated by happiness like serotonin and dopamine? That’s what makes the difference.
Garbh Sanskar activities like Garbh Samvad (talking to the baby), reading or listening to scriptures or stories that teach good values, listening to calming music, engaging in pregnancy yoga practices, and pranayama (breathing exercises) have been found to create a shower of happy hormones in the womb.
A study has proven that if the mother is depressed during pregnancy, the baby also acquires a tendency for depression.
A simple Garbh Sanskar recommendation, the Bhramari Pranayama, fills the mother with resonance and harmony.
The “Om” sound released in the body boosts the production of nitric oxide, calming the mother and helping the baby’s cells build peaceful paths with each other.
Impact of Stress on Maternal Health and Baby Development
Another study shows that cortisol, a bad hormone with damaging effects on the brain, reaches the unborn baby when the mother is a victim of abuse and/or is stressed over a long period.
This cortisol can cross the placenta when a pregnant woman is under a high degree of stress and affects the baby’s brain development, specifically memory.
In addition, stressed mothers are more susceptible to infection and illness during pregnancy, alongside risks of preterm labor, preterm delivery, low infant birth weight, pre-eclampsia, and gestational diabetes.
Traditional Practices for Pregnancy Wellness – Garbh Sanskar
Yog Nidra meditation, as recommended by Garbh Sanskar, can calm the mind and also cure mild pregnancy edema. It helps cope with the increasing tiredness of the last months of pregnancy.
Postnatally, Yog Nidra gives relaxation despite the sleepless nights with the newborn baby. Studies show that it reduces stress and postnatal depression and increases the production of breast milk.
According to a Harvard study, unborn infants respond to more than just physical touch—they respond to their mother’s emotional state as well.
It says that when mothers watch sad films, babies move less, but when a mother laughs, ultrasound images show that the baby is bouncing around happily.
Another research has proven that the fetus can record much more detailed information than was previously taught and that the memory of the same remains intact even after birth. So, the pregnant woman should read good literature aloud to the baby.
Read more, How To Make Your Baby Intelligent During Pregnancy and Beyond : The Proven Tips
When Should Garbh Sanskar Begin?
Garbh Sanskar’s “talk to baby” activities can start as early as 16 weeks of pregnancy. Mantra chanting (“Man” means mind and “Tra” means release) helps in keeping the energies flowing through the pregnant woman’s body, maintaining a state of resonance.
It increases oxygen in her brain, reduces heart rate and blood pressure, and assists in creating calm brainwave activity.
It helps prevent pregnancy-induced hypertension, gestational diabetes, and intrauterine growth retardation.
Know the bonus:
The resonance also reaches the baby’s brain and forms cell connections for growth. One study found that around 24 weeks, the babies developed specific preferences for music while in the womb.
So now our question: does listening to music do anything more than calming the mom and baby?
In a study, researchers studying pregnant women who listened to the Carnatic music of Kalyani Raga for 20 minutes each day found an improvement in the unborn baby’s reflexes, responses, movement, and mental stimulation. Classical music was growing the baby’s brain.
Double Benefits for Mother and Baby – Garbh Sanskar
Garbh Sanskar not only benefits the unborn baby but the mom as well. It not only inculcates positive thinking and attitude but also promotes overall physical well-being.
Every little effort the pregnant woman makes to connect with the baby with thoughts, mantras, pregnancy yoga classes, and stories from mythology works powerfully.
Understanding Garbh Sanskar: The Basics
Garbh Sanskar, you may have heard this word.
What does it mean?
“Garbh” means womb, and “Sanskar” means instilling values. So, instilling values in the unborn child is nothing but Garbh Sanskar.
With just a few simple traditional practices and Garbh Sanskar activities, you can contribute to your child’s cognitive development, and it also helps the mother. So, there is a double benefit—to the mother and the baby.
As we have discussed earlier, scientific research and evidence have proven that babies in the womb have an infinite capacity to grow their minds and senses by simple external stimulation.
The baby is not an object inside; it is a live, kicking human in development. So, this is the right time to instill good values in your child.
Connecting to Your Baby During Pregnancy
Now, how does a pregnant woman connect to the baby using Garbh Sanskar practices?
Let’s say you watched a web show today, and there was a lot of violence in it. Do you know the thoughts generated in your mind reached the baby promptly and impacted the baby as well?
In Garbh Sanskar, we think about good things, we do things that increase happiness hormones, and they impact our baby directly.
Garbh Sanskar tells us how to actually synchronize everything.
A simple example: if you listen to some good harmonizing music or read a good book, a nice textbook with lots of “Satva” qualities, all these Satva Gunas will reach your baby.
This is affected by the mother’s thoughts. Whatever the mother is thinking or listening to, those things are going directly to the baby, and it will create good-quality traits in your baby.
Preparing for Pregnancy: A Holistic Approach – Garbh Sanskar
In a nutshell, the connection between the mother and the child is like a mental umbilical cord, and this is done through Garbh Sanskar activities.
So, when should you ideally start Garbh Sanskar practices?
Garbh Sanskar activities should be started three months before conception. That is the time when you start preparing, and these practices will help you.
How do you go about it?
You have to start with eating the right kind of food, the “Satvik” pregnancy diet, and you have to do “Nadi Shuddhi” as well.
This will cleanse and purify your body for a healthy conception. It is very important to prepare your body and mind because the kind of thoughts you have while conceiving will influence your ability to “download” a healthy, divine baby.
Read more, The Silent Threat: Common Household Products and Women’s Health
Impact of Garbh Sanskar on Baby’s Development
What is the impact of Garbh Sanskar?
How does a pregnant woman shape her baby’s traits?
The baby’s brain is growing fastest during these nine months. Just imagine, it was one sperm and one ovum that fertilized together and started developing.
The maximum baby brain development happens during these nine months. Eighty percent of brain growth activities occur during this period.
A huge number of neural growth and neural stimulation connections are growing every second inside the womb.
While you are reading this article, and if you are pregnant, numerous cells are multiplying. Everything that the mother thinks and feels is communicated through different hormones to the unborn child.
Scientific studies have shown that Garbh Sanskar practices increase happy neuropeptides. If you are happy, the baby will automatically be happy and grow to be healthier.
Stress and Its Effects on Baby’s Cognitive Growth
Now, you might have a question in your mind: Does the placenta filter out the bad hormones?
There is some good news for you. The placenta nourishes the baby, and its health determines the lifespan of your child. Its health and wellness are totally dependent on two factors: maternal nutrition and hormonal composition.
The good news is that the placenta has a great filtering system. This filter produces an enzyme that deactivates the stress hormones or harmful hormones before they get into the fetal circulation.
So, if you have a lot of stress, very little of that would actually reach your baby. But the good hormones are reaching the baby more easily.
However, you need to know that if you have fleeting concerns about anxiety or excitement, they reach your baby but in a very minute quantity.
When the stress levels are very high and if it becomes a habit to be stressed, these enzymes cannot work, and all the stress goes from the mother directly to the baby.
Effects of Prolonged Stress on Fetal Brain Development
A lot of research has been done, and they have realized that mothers who were very stressed had babies that were impacted because of the stress, as compared to mothers who had moderate levels of stress.
A stressed or unhappy mom secretes hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which flood the baby with sad neuropeptides.
If you have excesses of these thoughts, only then will it impact your baby. Some fleeting thoughts of negativity will get filtered.
However, these neuropeptides barge in through the placenta, enter the fetal circulation, and reach up to the limbic system of the baby’s brain.
This leads to lower electrical connections, decreases the baby’s joy, and causes a lot of loneliness and sadness in the baby.
This is only in extreme cases of stress. If this continues for a longer time, your child may have a timid personality with reduced self-esteem and lower self-confidence as they grow up.
So, to have a positive mindset for yourself is very, very important because only then will your baby also get that. If the mother is happy, the baby is happy.
Maternal Wellness and Emotional Bonding – Garbh Sanskar
Research shows that 70 to 80 percent of pregnant mothers experience either prolonged depression or a phase of baby blues.
Sleep deprivation leads to reduced immunity and impacts the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands, causing a cascade of hormonal imbalances in the body.
As the pregnant woman copes with a lot of exhaustion and distress, fears related to birth issues, the weakening of joint family systems, and urban stresses add to her anxieties.
A simple way of relieving all these things is by following traditional health practices like Garbh Sanskar activities, pregnancy meditation, and emotional wellness practices.
The Role of Emotional Nourishment in Baby’s Development
There was a scientist called Bowlby who did a study and found that if a pregnant woman does not connect with her unborn baby, there can be irreversible mental health consequences for the baby as they grow up.
A pregnant mother’s state of mind affects the unborn baby’s cognitive development, and active, and non-cognitive skills. When she is calm and at peace, the baby gets those benefits.
She experiences higher self-esteem and a sense of personal control. The opposite also leads to a lot of complications.
If she is stressed, there could be intrauterine growth retardation, preterm labor, prolonged labor, fetal heart decline, low birth weight, increased rates of cesarean sections, infections, postnatal behavioral problems, and even developmental disorders in the unborn child.
Stress Hormones and Their Impact on Pregnancy Health
Stress hormones activate the baby’s endocrine system by altering the distribution of blood pressure in the body.
This changes the basic character of the child’s physiology. It is something so deep that your every thought is actually impacting your baby.
Babies born to stressed mothers are hyperactive, born prematurely, have low birth weight and are irritable all the time.
On the contrary, when the mothers were happy, peaceful, joyful, and relaxed, they secreted happy hormones like endorphins or encephalins.
Studies showed that their babies were filled with happiness, which led to long-term personality traits of serenity, calmness, and positive self-esteem.
Garbh Sanskar – Why Emotional Wellness Practices Are Essential for Moms-to-Be
So, dear would-be mommies, you need to think right and do right. If you are happy, your baby is happy.
Not just today, but your baby’s cognitive growth and mental development later in life depend on your state of mind today.
So think in the present, live, and follow Garbh Sanskar practices for a peaceful pregnancy.
FAQ’S
What is garbh sanskar in Ayurveda?
Garbha Sanskar is an ancient Indian idea. It promotes caring for the mother and the fetus throughout pregnancy. According to Ayurveda, it benefits the child’s intellectual, emotional, and physical development.
When should I start Garbh Sanskar in pregnancy?
The lifestyle in pregnancy that must be followed every day is called garbhsanskar. Any day or month of pregnancy is a good time to begin Garbhsanskar practice.
Pregnancy planning is the first step of Garbhsanskar, which continues till the final day of the pregnancy.
How to get Garbh Sanskar at home?
- Starting Garbh Sanskar at Home: A Guide
- Make the Environment Positive: Be in the company of positive people, objects, and experiences.
- Develop Healthful Routines: Get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet, and exercise frequently.
- Practice Garbhsamvad: …
- Engage in yoga and meditation:…