Hello Deborah and everyone, Thank you for this post. I am grateful for your
input. As you suggest, to create a way to provide somatic peacefulness is
integral to the process. I would perhaps suggest though that from personal
experience, early trauma at birth or prior to it can have many effects
throughout life. I know an expectant mother can worry overly about minor
traumas affecting her fetus, but I suppose that the study on 9/11 babies will
bear out the fact that severe trauma is not to be taken too lightly. There are
many extenuating circumstances that I do not wish to discuss here and they add
facts to this trauma that make it more severe than most. I completely respect
the dignity and natural ability of the mother. But sometimes this is not
enough. When all things come together in the movement of life then it is
enough.
Thanks for the in-depth post. I am grateful. Anni
--- In ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "deborahgf" <choices@...> wrote:
I believe it is important to distinguish between inherited trauma, fetal
trauma, and epigenetics, particularly in terms of what will benefit the
fetus in this case. The young woman has had a terrible experience, for
which the word trauma is appropriate. At the same time, she is already
doing an excellent job of protecting the child forming within her. Yes,
the fetus undoubtedly experienced surges of stress hormones and
neurotransmitters during and after the assault, since they would cross
the placenta; if the mother has had flashbacks, there may have been
repeated episodes of fetal stress. And at the same time, the mother's
heartbeat has mostly long since returned to normal, and the fetus is
still safe in the mother's womb, hearing that familiar beat, rocked by
the mother's movement. In that sense, the mother has successfully
protected her unborn child from the major portion of the trauma. And it
sounds as if the woman herself is well supported by her husband and by
you, Anni. I honestly don't think we have reason to be overly concerned
about inherited trauma from this event, however awful it was.
If I imagine this situation in a constellation format, I see the parents
appropriately shielding their child from the burdens of the parents'
fate - a good outcome for the child, and a good way to start the long
learning curve of raising a child. If the parents themselves are also
well-supported - in practical present-day terms as well as systemic and
inherited terms - that is, of course, even better than if they stand
alone with their child.
What "we" can do for the child - and are certainly allowed to do - is to
support the mother in her own healing. That healing should by
somatically grounded, since the fetus receives input somatically.
(Infants and young children, even when they begin to use language, still
receive a large measure of input somatically as well.) So the suggestion
of cranio-sacral work is a good one, but any well-grounded bodywork will
be useful, as long as the practitioner knows how to work with a pregnant
body. Healing energy work, such as Reiki, would also be useful.
Everything you are doing, Anni, to support the woman also supports her
child, especially since, at this point, there is not really much
distinction between them, particularly from the child's point of view.
I don't know how many members of this list have themselves borne
children, but the fact is that it is very common to worry that our
actions and experiences during pregnancy may harm the child. I think
this is even more true today than when I had my children, with the
ubiquity of ultrasound images now plus all the warnings about caffeine
and heat and stress and.... But we cannot protect children from
everything nor can we make sure they are happy at every moment. (If you
have ever seen the panic in a newborn when the mother is shifting the
child from the now-empty breast to the still-full one, you know we can't
make sure they will be happy at every moment.) Of course we feel a
special desire to comfort and nurture the mother/fetus duo when there
has been a terrible experience, but we should also allow ourselves to
feel deep respect for the mother's natural ability to protect her child
and to bow to that ability.
Deborah Frangquist
--- In ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "anni" <annimukkala@>
wrote:
work in the family systems. The trauma of a pregnant woman may shift
This is an interesting article and points to the problems we see as we
the epigenetics of her child with which she is pregnant. My goal always
in doing constellations is to find the love oriented solution that might
offer hope and change. To find the problem, of course, is only
diagnostic in nature.
with whom I am working and who is 6 plus months pregnant. Since my
Having said this, I still would like some input on the current client
client had a recent and severe trauma, there is a possibility
that the child she is pregnant with may be affected. Is there, then,any solution that we can offer her for this possibility? I will be
working with her to deal with the trauma response she is having and will
later look at family systemic issues, but for now, my prime concern is
exactly how to offer her and the baby with which she is pregnant some
way of altering the severity of what the child may be inheriting. Hmmm?
Can we do this? Are we allowed? Is this any different than treating an
illness when it is at an extremely early stage of development? What are
some specifics that may alter the outcome so this baby is not born with
difficulties from this trauma? If we can work with trauma years after it
occurs, how do we work trauma in a pregnancy in the immediate aftermath
of the trauma?
wrote:
Anni
--- In ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Gail A" gail_m_allen@
9/11 and looking at inherited stress.
Posting a link to a recent study involving children born soon after
to see the research that confirms it.http://www.genomeweb.com//node/978919
We see this inheritance regularly in Constellations - it's grounding
Gail
