The Science Behind Pregnant Fathers [HuffingtonPost.com]

Before we discuss the science of my being a pregnant father I should divulge that I’ve also been a pregnant grandfather. I know there is much controversy nowadays around imagining that I am pregnant when my wife is the one navigating morning sickness, hormone flooding, weight gain, back pains, labor pains, fears of all of the above and so much more, but the fact is that a mother-to-be or a mother who is about-to-be-a-mother-again needs all the help she can possibly muster and if deciding that we are pregnant alongside her helps, I say go for it.

Take this blog that my wife, Kathleen, has been developing or the movie she made (while pregnant), In Utero, about the science of pregnancy. My job was to be there whenever it was possible. There are the old clichés — go out at midnight and get her pickles or chocolate covered strawberries, whatever. Down through history we’ve been pretty clear how much a pregnant mother needs support. In fact one of our presidential candidates (who happens to be a mother) noted many years ago that it takes a village to raise a child.

But in the process of making In Utero, Kathleen and I discovered the profound importance of every single person around that pregnant mother. For instance, as Dr. Thomas Verny notes in Kathleen’s film, “Water is a better conductor of sound than air. So it is actually easier for the baby to hear inside the womb than it is for the baby to hear outside.”

Which means that a voice, any voice, is clearly heard by that little being. If the mother feels happiness when that person is around, her body experiences a mix of chemical reactions. As Dr. Gabor Maté notes in the film, “Every emotion has a chemical correlate”. That chemical correlate (cortisol, endorphins, etc) goes through the placenta into the baby who feels the same feeling as the mother. As noted in Kathleen’s last blog, research has proven that the baby’s developing brain processes feelings from a very early stage.

[For more of this story, written by Stephen Gyllenhaal, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...d356e4b07c799cb0906b]