Anencephaly

[chaoticidealism]

I'm on the last day of finals week, finishing up a term paper for a fetal behavior class. My paper is on the neurological development of the premature infant, but along the way, I came up with some interesting ideas that can't go in the paper... so they are going here

Comments

passing 'behavior' in the womb?

[anonymous]

I am -not- knowledgeable about such things, but the thought occurred to me: Could some behaviors, including instincts, be passed from mother to child in the womb?

Re: passing 'behavior' in the womb?

[chaoticidealism]

Technically, yes. The biggest example I can think of is food and taste preferences: When a pregnant woman eats something, chemicals from the food pass through the placenta, and the baby can actually taste the food while swallowing the amniotic fluid. The baby is learning what foods are available in the mother's environment, and will show a preference for the things that the mother ate while she was pregnant. Experimentally, for example: If you feed pregnant women a lot of carrots, then after they're born, their babies will like carrot juice more

`Re: passing 'behavior' in the womb?

[ada_hoffmann]

Really? That's an actual thing (tasting the mom's food in the amniotic fluid)? Because I knew that was a thing in my family at least, but I didn't know that it was scientifically (as opposed to anecdotally) attested.

(My family jokes that I'm "made of Italian food", because for some reason, my pregnant mom could only keep down lasagna. :P Pasta is still my very favouritest thing to cook for myself. Well, that and homemade Chinese food, but the latter was an acquired taste. With my brothers, for similar reasons, it's all about crackers.)

Re: `Re: passing 'behavior' in the womb?

[chaoticidealism]

Did a quick Google search to see if I could find references--turns out NPR covered it a while ago and summarizes the research pretty well here:

Baby's Palate and Food Memories Shaped Before Birth

[rosabw]

This is lovely. You are like the opposite of a eugenicist. I have followed you many years because of it.

[chaoticidealism]

Thank you for the encouragement :)

[imps85]

i know a case. they decided to abort the fetus because the amniotic fluid would cause the fetus to seizure. all the time...

[chaoticidealism]

I guess it's understandable. This is one of those situations where, in the abstract, I think it's wrong to basically euthanize a child who's having constant, untreatable seizures and not expected to live past birth... On the other hand, I don't know what I'd do in that situation, what decision I'd make. It's not something I've ever faced and I don't feel right judging people who have faced it. Either way, they've suffered a loss, and chose to have it occur earlier because the child was having constant seizures, not out of convenience. I guess maybe it's a little like a terminal cancer patient deciding that it's okay if they die earlier because they got too much morphine, because it's more important to them to manage their pain...

recommendation

[anonymous]

Send your Anencephaly article to pro lifers!

Re: recommendation

[chaoticidealism]

I would, but I'm afraid they'd just turn it into more emotionally-oriented propaganda. I agree that a fetus is human and that they should have legal rights; I just don't like the way many "pro-lifers" are using the fetus to control the woman carrying it. It's an awkward place for me to be--I can't fit into either the pro-choice or pro-life movement.

I think the best I could do would be to just point them toward blogs and articles written by women who had babies with anencephaly and loved them for however long they had to live.

Here's a good one:
http://babyfaithhope.blogspot.com/
Faith Hope lived for 93 days at home with her mom and was very much loved. Her mother is a very religious woman, but above all, she's a mother. Your heart breaks for her, reading her account of her baby's life; but you see happiness there too. If she'd aborted, she would have lost those precious days with her daughter....

This, so much.

[anonymous]

I get really tired of people defining worth by IQ. All people are valuable, no matter what disability they have. People with severe intellectual disabilities perceive the world differently from most people, and there's nothing wrong with that. dsdsf