Pre-Parenting: Nurturing Your Child from Conception [Paperback]

Thomas R. Verny (Author), Pamela Weintraub (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 23, 2003

How does a mother's tone of voice affect her unborn child? What kind of music, if any, should a child be exposed to in the womb? Can parents influence the predispositions of their child to traits like depression, or something as elusive as basic goodness? Thanks to revolutionary discoveries in neuroscience and developmental psychology in recent years, says Dr. Thomas Verny, we now know more about these questions than ever. In Pre-Parenting, Dr. Verny translates this research into practical advice for parents and parents-to-be.

Pre-Parenting explains how even the most ordinary events can evoke a cascade of biological changes in a baby -- not only in the brain but also in the immune system and throughout the body. Every experience, from a baby's trip down the birth canal to the way she is held or spoken to, can shape her health and personality. An internationally recognized expert in early human development, Dr. Verny shows parents how to use this new information to create an ideal environment for their babies, enhance their babies' intelligence and social skills, and become better parents through "conscious parenting." Insightful and encouraging, Pre-Parenting is an invaluable guide for parents who want to help actualize their child's full potential, beginning with conception.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Verny (The Secret Life of the Unborn Child), a psychiatrist and founder of the Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Association of America, firmly believes that the development of the embryo and fetus, particularly the brain, is affected by a variety of external factors including nutrition, stress, medication and exercise. Stimulation such as playing music for unborn children is less important, according to Verny, than the emotional state of the mother. "The prenatal classroom is better suited for lessons of intimacy, love, and trust than for intellectual calisthenics or IQ boosting." He is particularly concerned with pregnant women who are uneasy with impending parenthood, and cites much scientific evidence showing how prenatal maternal stress negatively effects the baby's physical development. Likewise, he shows how parental behavior and mood in general have a direct impact on their children. However, readers looking for practical parenting tools may be frustrated; much of his advice is very broad (he urges women to find emotional support during pregnancy, for instance), and parents will probably find it quite difficult to work out anxiety-provoking internal conflicts and eliminate stressors without more concrete and perhaps professional guidance. Yet while the book falls somewhat short as a hands-on guide, Verny's thought-provoking and impassioned arguments and his engrossing descriptions of the infant's internal world will likely raise awareness of how parents' emotional lives affect their developing baby.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A psychiatrist and founder of the Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Association of North America, Verny studies prenatal and infant brain development. Using the neuroscience angle to promote a New Age concept of the mind-body connection, he states that a child's brain interacts with his or her environment from the moment of conception. Since both genetics and experience shape personality, the nature/nurture dichotomy, he argues, does not exist. Although his basic explanation of current neuroscience, the mind-body connection, and its influence on child development will be of interest to parents and childcare professionals, his parenting advice is nothing new: interact with the child during pregnancy and infancy, avoid stress, take prenatal classes, have a natural childbirth, avoid physically or emotionally abusing the child, and maintain a stable, loving family. The American Medical Association Complete Guide to Your Children's Health (Random, 1999) or T. Berry Brazelton's Touchpoints (LJ 11/1/92) provide more comprehensive and practical information for parents. Recommended for public libraries where there is interest in New Age parenting material. Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671775243
• ISBN-13: 978-0671775247
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 49 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing: not credible, guilt-tripping for mothers April 25, 2005

By RedRobot

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book thinking that the author would describe current research and try to distill it into advice for parents. Unfortunately, it frequently sinks into an impassioned but unscientific screed of his personal opinions about prenatal development.

There are two huge flaws to this book. One, he sloppily and disingenuously dismisses research that doesn't fit in with his worldview. For example, he criticizes Harris' The Nurture Assumption by saying that "her conclusions run counter to" the findings of other research studies (um, that's how the scientific method works--to advance scientific knowledge, people have to challenge current thinking!), and misprepresents her work by saying that she bases the book on her personal experiences. Actually, it's an extremely well-supported book (note the forward from respected MIT psychologist Steven Pinker), and while Harris does mention her own experiences, her arguments are based on detailed analysis of genetic/enviromental studies. Frankly, I suspect that Verny simply couldn't follow the math, and that's why he pans her book without addressing the technical analysis.

Two, he tries to support his more controversial opinions with highly emotional anecdotes, rather than actual evidence-based data. For example, the author claims that fetuses can hear their mother's thoughts (memories of which he believes can be uncovered with regression hypnosis, a practice that is not scientifically credible). Even more bizarrely, Verny claims that a 16-year-old was crushed to death in a car accident because he was traumatized by a premature birth brought on by pressure to the mother's abdomen. That is magical thinking, not scientific thinking....

This book would simply be ridiculous and a disappointment, but Verny puts so much pressure on mothers that instead I find it to be a travesty. Not only does he claim that mothers can't have stress, anger or unhappiness during their pregnancies without risking damage to their babies, but they cannot even have any negative thoughts about their babies because their babies will "hear" their thoughts, be psychologically damaged, and remember them years later! Mothers are the recipients of enough paternalistic advice covering every aspect of what they eat, how much they exercise, when they stop work, etc etc. When one is pregnant, you quickly get the feeling that you no longer own your own body. But now Verny says that not only is your body not yours, but your thoughts aren't either. Mothers don't need to deal with spurious guilt-tripping, in addition to everything else. Read more ›

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for obsessive types March 28, 2006

By Kathleen Garber

Format:Hardcover

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tomorrow's Baby. I learned lots of new things such as the fact that the ova (egg) is always fertilized when sperm are about but the woman's body sometimes aborts it because of the male cells. The woman's body thinks it's an intruder. Also that at only 28 days old, when the embryo is only 1/4 inch long, the blood vessel that will become the heart begins to beat and the three primary parts of the brain have formed.

Unlike another reviewer, I found the talk about homosexuality interesting. I don't believe that the author is saying homosexuality is bad, but it isn't the norm. I found it intriguing to learn that homosexuality may be caused by stress during pregnancy because that would prove that homosexuals have no control over their feelings.

Someone else mentioned the author saying that stress, trauma, depression, abuse and the like during pregnancy causes mental health troubles in the child later on. I don't find that blaming. I don't feel that because I was depressed during my pregancy, if my daughter turns out to have mental health issues it will be my fault. It's not that concrete. Her health may or may not have something to do with my pregancy. The point of the research is to show that we need to implement some strategies to help those who are pregnant and poor/stressed/depressed/being abused and maybe in a few years the rate of mental health issues will decrease.

I especially enjoyed the summaries and key points at the end of each chapter. At times I had a hard time understanding the scientific talk but it wasn't that advanced. I just needed a quiet corner to read uninterupted. It's not a beginner's book though.

26 of 35 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware of Homophobia February 20, 2005

By Stephanie Kimball

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was delighted with this book until I hit page 43 and the section entitled "Maternal Stress and Sexual Orientation." I was both disgusted and offended to read the way Verny perpetuates homosexuality as abnormal. He is irresponsible and inflammatory in his words and implications. He basically states that a mother causes homosexuality in her children, that all gay men are effeminate and that lesbians are not nurturing females. On page 45 he writes, "Scientists say the findings make sense..." Scientists? What scientists? He uses this and rat studies to promote his spurious science. I was originally going to return this book to Amazon, but instead have decided to take it out of circulation and spend my money on a book that has some legitimacy.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Act of Responsibility for Humankind July 26, 2002

By Petar-Kresimir Hodzic M.D., CIMI

Format:Hardcover

Read this truly fascinating and inspiring book as an act of
responsibility for humankind and as a contribution to making the world a better place.
"Tomorrow's Baby", the new book by Dr. Thomas Verny, the most eminent expert in the field, inevitably touches the existential core of each human being.
However, there are two things you certainly cannot do with this book. Firstly, you cannot read it all at once, and secondly, you cannot read it only once; because, almost every page is a new adventure into the depths of the art and science of responsible parenthood.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Conscious Early Parenting Could Yet Save Us December 27, 2002

By David B. Chamberlain

Format:Hardcover

Hopefully, this visionary, courageous and helpful book on the art and science of parenting will push us toward the critical mass needed to assure a future for our mad, deteriorating world. This authoritative book should make it clear to parents that the future of civilization is not in the hands of armies, corporations, doctors, television, blockbuster movies, or the World Bank, but in the hands of parents who will conscientiously guide, humanely endow, and proudly send forth healthy and loving children into the world. As long as we fail at this, nothing else will matter or last. Fortunately, this book is easy to read, full of illuminating stories, reveals the latest science, and carries you along with Summaries and Key Parenting Points in every chapter. Be sure to find and memorize the two concluding chapters on how to cultivate basic goodness and how to enhance empathy, compassion, and altruism--the priceless things that cannot be bought at Universities or at Wallmart and just might still move us in the direction of a civilized future!