Hopeful Suffering

           Painful needles of insulin? Massive amounts of tablets, capsules and medical bills? Who’s to blame? Nowadays, daily exercise and nutritional diets are no longer enough. No matter what we do, we still get diabetes, cancer, obesity or depression. Going through the years, most people believe that the fault lies in genetics or adult lifestyle. But as our lives continue on, most people are starting to question this belief. Is it really all about genetics? Is eating cupcakes on a daily basis unhealthy?

              Adult diseases are growing problems of society and scientists are showing that though lifestyle is a factor on these diseases, it is not the main cause. Also, genetics barely has any influence on these diseases. The problem lies in the womb, where the blood level, emotional stability and toxin intake of the mother is the most important aspect. In addition to this, the fetus is able to discern the environment he/she will be living in. With this, there exist an evident link between fetal origin and adult diseases; the mother’s lifestyle is the lifestyle that the unborn child is inheriting. Research is still ongoing about Fetal Origins but many assumptions have been made. In addition to this, an article in Time magazine has been written about fetal origin by Annie Murphy Paul which discusses the breakthrough brought about by Fetal Origin. Paul (2010) stresses that “there's another powerful source of influence you may not have considered: your life as a fetus. The kind and quantity of nutrition you received in the womb; the pollutants, drugs and infections you were exposed to during gestation; your mother's health, stress level and state of mind while she was pregnant with you — all these factors shaped you as a baby and a child and continue to affect you to this day” (p. 38). The first 9 months in the womb has a big impact on the well-being of the child. It begets an unchangeable effect on the mental and physical health of the child.

          The most critical part of development for the child is the pregnancy stage. “Gestation (Pregnancy) is the development of the fetus in the uterus.” (Tierney, 1999, p. 595) With this, we are told that this period is really critical in the development of the child. Most people believe that playing Mozart to the womb of the mother enriches the mental capabilities of the child. But this is just the surface of what we call the fetal origin. Paul (2010) mentioned that the shaping and molding of a child is much deeper than the simple playing of Mozart to the womb. It is all about the air that the mother is exposed to, the intake of food and drinks, and the emotions she is feeling. The baby treats anything the mother takes in as biological information. Babies do not absorb music. They get information like whether they will be born in a secure and abundant environment by the amount of food the mother is digesting and how the mother and those around her help protect the womb. This increases the possibility that fetal origin is linked to one’s health.

            Did you know that the greater weight gain a pregnant woman incurs during her pregnancy, the greater the chance that the child to be born will be overweight by the age of 3? Most people believe that again, the ones to blame are genetics and lifestyle. But how exactly do we acquire this lifestyle? Fetal origin answers this with the possibility that the child inside the womb may share the eating habits of their mothers. This may be the reason why obese mothers beget children who are more prone to obesity.

“Researchers have compared children born to obese mothers with their siblings born after the mothers have had successful anti-obesity surgery. The later-born children inherited similar genes as their older siblings, and (research shows) practice similar eating habits, but they experienced different intrauterine environments. In a 2006 study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers found that the children gestated by women post surgery were 52% less likely to be obese than siblings born to the same mother when she was still heavy. A second study by the same group, published in 2009, found that children born after their mothers lost weight had lower birth weights and were three times less likely to become severely obese than their older brothers and sisters” (Paul, 2010, p. 39) 

         “The uncertainty in this field is enormous, but we have learned that a uterus is not a diving bell that insulates its occupant from the world’s perils” (Kristof, 2010, para. 15.) Lifestyle is now perceived to be a product of the intrauterine environment that we experienced. It is not a problem that is acquired in the future. A wrong lifestyle starts as early as the gestation period. Though Fetal Origins is a study that is still at its infancy, I think that it has given us enough research to know for a fact that the period of gestation not only affects the physical appearance of the child; it also affects the future mental and physical health of the child. Adult diseases are born as soon as we are born. Genetics and adult lifestyle only has a minimal effect on these diseases that we acquire. The 9 months of suffering for every mother is an opportunity for a healthier population. Life, as we know it, is never about the end. It is all about the progress and the means of achieving that end. Now that a breakthrough has been discovered, this is our chance to turn the tide around and start living healthier lives.

References

Kristof, N. D. (2010, October 2). At Risk From The Womb. The New York Times. Retrieved from

             http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/opinion/03kristof.html?_r=4

Paul, A. M. (2010, September 22). How the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of Your Life. Time, 176,

             38-41.

Tierney, H. (Ed.). (1999). Women’s Studies Encyclopedia. United States of America: Greenwood

             Publishing Group, Inc.