EDUCATION LIBRARY
PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM

“The worst circumcision scar is the one left in the brain of its victims.”

ACE Adverse Childhood Experiences Affect the Brain for Life

The agony and terror of circumcision have lasting, measurable effects on the brain, physically altering it forever

Epigenetics and Child Development: How Children’s Experiences Affect Their Genes

Although frequently misunderstood, adverse fetal and early childhood experiences can—and do—lead to physical and chemical changes in the brain that can last a lifetime.

Injurious experiences, such as malnutrition, exposure to chemical toxins or drugs, and toxic stress before birth or in early childhood are not “forgotten,” but rather are built into the architecture of the developing brain through the epigenome. The “biological memories” associated with these epigenetic changes can affect multiple organ systems and increase the risk not only for poor physical and mental health outcomes but also for impairments in future learning capacity and behavior.

Childhood Trauma Permanently Scars Brain, And Boosts Likelihood Of Depression

https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/science/childhood-trauma-permanently-scars-brain-and-boosts-likelihood-of-depression-XvpPL8thIUaZgfr1B4JhcQ/?fbclid=IwAR0PN7NpgwZAY4uhdWWwQ2z1o2pkTrMfjFrJQOipTiOzyHP71aPChkMzHXY

Psychological impacts of male circumcision

http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/

Stress and trauma in earliest years linked to reduced hippocampal volume in adolescence

“These findings tell us that there may be a ‘sensitive period’ in which stress is more likely to affect the development of the hippocampus, which is connected to learning, memory and mood,” said lead author Kathryn L. Humphreys, assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt. “Given that the hippocampus undergoes rapid changes in the first years of life, the effects of stressful experiences during this period, even those the child doesn’t remember, may be particularly important in understanding the development of this region of the brain.”

Stress and trauma in earliest years linked to reduced hippocampal volume in adolescence

http://www.kathrynhumphreys.com/

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Thickness Is Related to Alexithymia in Childhood Trauma-Related PTSD

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0139807

Abstract

Alexithymia, or “no words for feelings”, is highly prevalent in samples with childhood maltreatment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) has been identified as a key region involved in alexithymia, early life trauma, and PTSD.

Functional alterations in the dACC also have been associated with alexithymia in PTSD. This study examined whether dACC morphology is a neural correlate of alexithymia in child maltreatment-related PTSD.

Sixteen adults with PTSD and a history of childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, or exposure to domestic violence, and 24 healthy controls (HC) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS–20) and underwent magnetic resonance imaging.

Cortical thickness of the dACC was measured using FreeSurfer, and values were correlated with TAS–20 scores, controlling for sex and age, in both groups. Average TAS–20 score was significantly higher in the PTSD than the HC group. TAS–20 scores were significantly positively associated with dACC thickness only in the PTSD group.

This association was strongest in the left hemisphere and for TAS–20 subscales that assess difficulty identifying and describing feelings. We found that increasing dACC gray matter thickness is a neural correlate of greater alexithymia in the context of PTSD with childhood maltreatment. While findings are correlational, they motivate further inquiry into the relationships between childhood adversity, emotional awareness and expression, and dACC morphologic development in trauma-related psychopathology.

In the human brain, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex that resembles a “collar” surrounding the frontal part of the corpus callosum. It consists of Brodmann areas 24, 32, and 33.

It appears to play a role in a wide variety of autonomic functions, such as regulating blood pressure and heart rate.[citation needed]

It is also involved in certain higher-level functions, such as attention allocation,[1] reward anticipation, decision-making,[2] ethics and morality,[3] impulse control (e.g. performance monitoring and error detection),[4] and emotion.[5][6]

Stress and trauma in earliest years linked to reduced hippocampal volume in adolescence

https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2018/12/19/stress-and-trauma-in-earliest-years-linked-to-reduced-hippocampal-volume-in-adolescence/?fbclid=IwAR0VaWVlSPKRL_CCuVOxMiNx08jKrsCOmUQ3pmKR64ZogLs_P8x03YAiTSs

CHILDHOOD MALTREATMENT PREDICTS REDUCED INHIBITION‐RELATED ACTIVITY IN THE ROSTRAL ANTERIOR CINGULATE IN PTSD, BUT NOT TRAUMA‐EXPOSED CONTROLS

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/da.22506

Findings highlight individual differences in neural function following childhood trauma, and point to inhibition‐related activation in rostral ACC as a risk factor for PTSD.

Early Life Stress and Morphometry of the Adult Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Caudate Nuclei

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006322306001405

Background

Early life stress (ELS) is linked to adult psychopathology and may contribute to long-term brain alterations, as suggested by studies of women who suffered childhood sexual abuse. We examine whether reported adverse ELS defined as stressful and/or traumatic adverse childhood events (ACEs) is associated with smaller limbic and basal ganglia volumes.

Conclusions

Reported ELS is associated with smaller ACC and caudate volumes, but not the hippocampal or amygdala volumes. The reasons for these brain effects are not entirely clear, but may reflect the influence of early stress and traumatic events on the developing brain.

Childhood Trauma Exposure Disrupts the Automatic Regulation of Emotional Processing

https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2014311

Results showed that trauma-exposed youth failed to dampen dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity and engage amygdala–pregenual cingulate inhibitory circuitry during the regulation of emotional conflict, and were less able to regulate emotional conflict. In addition, trauma-exposed youth showed greater conflict-related amygdala reactivity that was associated with diminished levels of trait reward sensitivity. These data point to a trauma-related deficit in automatic regulation of emotional processing, and increase in sensitivity to emotional conflict in neural systems implicated in threat detection. Aberrant amygdala response to emotional conflict was related to diminished reward sensitivity that is emerging as a critical stress-susceptibility trait that may contribute to the emergence of mental illness during adolescence. These results suggest that deficits in conflict regulation for emotional material may underlie heightened risk for psychopathology in individuals that endure early-life trauma.

ACE What does ACE stand for?

Stop Abuse Campaign

https://stopabusecampaign.org/faq-the-ace-study/what-are-adverse-childhood-experiences-aces/

Adverse Childhood Experiences Psychology

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/acestudy/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fviolenceprevention%2Facestudy%2Findex.html

IA’s ACEs quiz includes genital cutting.

http://adversechildhoodexperiences.net

Psychology Today:

Circumcision Causes Immediate Harm

Circumcision is often performed on infants without anesthetic or with a local anesthetic that is ineffective at substantially reducing pain (Lander et al., 1997). In a study by Lander and colleagues (1997), a control group of infants who received no anesthesia was used as a baseline to measure the effectiveness of different types of anesthesia during circumcision. The control group babies were in so much pain—some began choking and one even had a seizure—they decided it was unethical to continue. It is important to also consider the effects of post-operative pain in circumcised infants (regardless of whether anesthesia is used), which is described as “severe” and “persistent” (Howard et al., 1994). In addition to pain, there are other negative physical outcomes including possible infection and death (Van Howe, 1997, 2004).

Pain from Circumcision in Infancy Alters the Brain

Research has demonstrated the hormone cortisol, which is associated with stress and pain, spikes during circumcision (Talbert et al., 1976; Gunnar et al., 1981). Although some believe that babies “won’t remember” the pain, we now know that the body “remembers” as evidenced by studies which demonstrate that circumcised infants are more sensitive to pain later in life (Taddio et al., 1997). Research carried out using neonatal animals as a proxy to study the effects of pain on infants’ psychological development have found distinct behavioral patterns characterized by increased anxiety, altered pain sensitivity, hyperactivity, and attention problems (Anand & Scalzo, 2000). In another similar study, it was found that painful procedures in the neonatal period were associated with site-specific changes in the brain that have been found to be associated with mood disorders (Victoria et al., 2013).

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/moral-landscapes/201501/circumcision-s-psychological-damage

The trauma issues, pain of an infant, the way this effects attachment bonding, latching behaviors, creates dissociate experiences and post traumatic stress, elevates cortisol, causes brain damage from severed nerves and hugely damages a man’s capacity for full orgasmic pleasure are not to be overlooked. The rest of the fallout such as sexual dysfunctions will also need to be addressed because big pharma will lose millions from a lack of boner pills not being sold!

Roi HuPer

Psychologists Talks About Damage of MGM

Psychiatrist Richard Schwartzman discusses his personal experiences with, and feelings about circumcision; his observations about the importance of early childhood nurturing, and protection from trauma.

Oxford University:

“Scans also showed that babies’ brains had the same response to a weak ‘poke’ (of force 128mN) as adults did to a stimulus four times as strong (512mN). The findings suggest that not only do babies experience pain much like adults but that they also have a much lower pain threshold.”

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-04-21-babies-feel-pain-adults

When you wound a man in the very place of his deepest union with another, you forever alter his connection with himself, with others and with the world in which he lives – a disruption most men never articulate and understand. It’s tragic.

Karen Kelly Glennon

Kennedy and Hansi, “Trauma in Childhood: Signs and Sewuelae as Seen in the Analysis of an Adolescent,” Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, (1986), Vol. 4 P. 220.

Peter’s analysis lasted for six years and started at the age of 13. Early traumatic and disturbing events played a striking part in his pathology and were vividly reexperienced in treatment. This short paper describes some of these reenactments and gives reasons why the experiences from which they derived might properly be described as “traumatic.”

There can be little doubt that the somatic and psychological experiences occasioned by the phimosis and circumcision were experienced by Peter as abuse and victimization.

http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/kennedy/

Anesthesia is Not Effective for Mutilating Genitals of Infants

General Anesthesia

Putting infants to sleep is too dangerous for babies. Only local anesthesia is safe.

 

Sucrose

“Our findings indicate that sucrose is not an effective pain relief drug. This is especially important in view of the increasing evidence that pain may cause short and long-term adverse effects on infant neurodevelopment,” said Dr Rebecca Slater

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/sep/02/babies-sugar-pain-relief-warning

Sugar? Are you KIDDING ME???? You think SUGAR will help a baby better deal with having his genitals flayed like a fish? I’m REALLY not from this planet. You all are criminally DUMB!!!!!

Lidocaine

“The adrenal cortisol response to surgery was not significantly reduced by the administration of lidocaine.”

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3731671/

Dorsal Nerve Block and Eutectic Mixture of Local Anesthetic Cream

“Based on 35 clinical trials involving 1,997 newborns, it can be concluded that DPNB (Dorsal Penile Nerve Block) and EMLA (Eutectic Mixture of Local Anesthetic Cream) do not eliminate circumcision pain. None of the studied interventions completely eliminated the pain response to circumcision.”

 

https://www.cochrane.org/CD004217/NEONATAL_pain-relief-for-neonatal-circumcision

 

Why you ask? The penile nerves are far too complex. They are NUMEROUS and have many cords extending out into the skin. While you may block the dorsal nerve the peroneal nerve is impossible to block and it innervates the plantar surface of the male genitals including the most sensitive part the frenulum which is destroyed during mutilation.

No matter WHAT YOUR CHILD WILL FEEL INTENSE PAIN!!!!

There is no numbing method available that is safe for infants that significantly reduces the immense pain of circumcision. 55% of the time no numbing method is used and much lower percentage In the past.

Innervation of the most sensitive part of the penis by perineal nerve is why EVERY single mutilation will carry extreme pain and psychological damage. You simply can’t remove the most sensitive part of a child without pain. You can’t put them under general anesthesia because it is too dangerous and the child might not wake up.

The best doctors have is the dorsal nerve block. The creme and the sucrose sucker are every bit as stupid and asinine as they sound. You go have a surgery on your genitals with a fu@king sucker. Imagine rubbing a creme on your genitals and having a surgery. You should know kids are more sensitive to pain so it’s worse for them.

Plus they don’t understand what’s happening. You do. Imagine how YOUR child will have the same horrible experience if you choose this for them. Imagine it happened to you or your husband. It’s trauma and it’s life long.

In this abstract you see the obvious cultural ignorance that the glans is the most sensitive part of the penis and therefore more valuable then the foreskin upon which rests the entire ridiculous notion that the foreskin or middle half of a man’s penis has no value sexually.

Any intact man or even mutilated men can assure you with a few finger strokes that the underside or the lateral raphe, which is the line that goes up the underside of the male, is by far more sensitive then the glans. Sorrells and Taylors studies debunk this cultural myth that American doctors fall for so easily as you can with your own finger.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3629761

Circumcision of neonates and children without appropriate anaesthesia is unacceptable practice

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0310057X1204000318

Abstract

Circumcision is painful surgery and appropriate intraoperative anesthesia and postoperative analgesia is required. This is recognized in the policies of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the majority of Australian State Health Departments. Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence exists that neonatal circumcision continues to be performed in Australia with either no anesthesia or with inadequate anesthesia.

This paper presents the evidence that neonatal circumcision is painful and reviews the available anesthetic techniques. The authors conclude that general anesthesia is arguably the most reliable way of ensuring adequate anesthesia, although this may mean deferment of the procedure until the child is older.

Local or regional anesthesia for neonatal circumcision ideally requires a separate skilled anesthetist (other than the proceduralist) to monitor the patient and intervene if the anesthesia is inadequate. Topical anesthesia with lignocaine-prilocaine (EMLA) cream is insufficient.

Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain responses during vaccination in boys

Using data from one of our randomised trials, we investigated post-hoc whether male neonatal circumcision is associated with a greater pain response to routine vaccination at 4 or 6 months. Circumcised infants had higher behavioural pain scores (8 vs 6, p=0·01) and cried longer (53 vs 19 s, p=0·02). Thus neonatal circumcision may affect pain response several months after the event.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673695902783

TORONTO – A study led by Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) researchers has demonstrated that not only do male infants feel pain during circumcision, they remember that pain six months later when they receive their routine vaccination.

http://www.sickkids.ca/AboutSickKids/Newsroom/Past-News/1997/Study-shows-that-infants-feel-and-remember-circumcision-pain.html

Dysregulation of the Right Brain: A Fundamental Mechanism of Traumatic Attachment and the Psychopathogenesis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

http://www.trauma-pages.com/a/schore-2002.php

Breast Feeding Disrupted

There is scientific evidence that the trauma of circumcision makes it harder for a baby to learn how to suckle.

http://www.circumstitions.com/Nursing.html

Newborns experience ‘too much pain’ during procedures, pediatrics AAP

In an updated policy statement released Monday, the AAP said pain from these procedures can be significant, especially in premature infants.

“Research suggests that repeated exposure to pain early in life can create changes in brain development and the body’s stress response systems that can last into childhood,” the academy said in a press release.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/health/newborns-experience-too-much-pain-during-procedures-pediatrics-group-says-1.2750960

 

AAP on MGM:

This is the same AAP that also says, “Evaluation of current evidence indicates that the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and that the procedure’s benefits justify access to this procedure for families who choose it.”

You can’t at once say infants experience too much pain and at the SAME TIME justify the most painful torture you can force on an infant. Am I in the Twilight Zone? BTW there are NO BENEFITS! All are trivial debunked pseudo-science.

https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/AAP-Newborns-Especially-Preemies-Experience-Too-Much-Pain-During-Routine-Procedures.aspx

 

PTSD

“Half of all men who were circumcised as babies have some degree of PTSD.

PTSD is what happened to men who went to Vietnam, and parents are doing it to their babies,” said J. Steven Svoboda, Executive Director of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child, a lawyer and co-author of the study.

Male Circumcision: Pain, Trauma and Psychosexual Sequelae

Infant male circumcision continues despite growing questions about its medical justification. As usually performed without analgesia or anaesthetic, circumcision is observably painful. It is likely that genital cutting has physical, sexual and psychological consequences too. Some studies link involuntary male circumcision with a range of negative emotions and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some circumcised men have described their current feelings in the language of violation, torture, mutilation and sexual assault. In view of the acute as well as long-term risks from circumcision and the legal liabilities that might arise, it is timely for health professionals and scientists to re-examine the evidence on this issue and participate in the debate about the advisability of this surgical procedure on unconsenting minors.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/135910530200700310

 

Circumcision Causes Lifelong Harm, Concludes New Research U.S. attorney warns doctors, “The foundation is well laid for lawsuits.”

A new study on circumcision in the latest edition of Journal of Health Psychology concludes that the surgery causes a host of psychological problems-including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)-in adults who have suffered the surgery as babies

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2002/06/prweb41148.htm

 

“Being cut as an infant has messed my life up. It has caused emotional, mental, physical and sexual problems, along with depression, rage, years of PTSD, and self-esteem problems. I had no idea it was even a problem until 3 years ago when I realized other circumcised men had similar issues.” ~Richard

Alexithymia (inability to recognize or describe or feel one’s emotions) and Circumcision Trauma: A Preliminary Investigation

Cut men are 1.6 times more likely to have acquired alexithymia

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270190401

This preliminary study investigates what role early trauma might have in alexithymia acquisition for adults by controlling for male circumcision. Three hundred self-selected men were administered the Toronto Twenty-Item Alexithymia Scale checklist and a personal history questionnaire. The circumcised men had age-adjusted alexithymia scores 19.9 percent higher than the intact men; were 1.57 times more likely to have high alexithymia scores; were 2.30 times less likely to have low alexithymia scores; had higher prevalence of two of the three alexithymia factors (difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings); and were 4.53 times more likely to use an erectile dysfunction drug. Alexithymia in this population of adult men is statistically significant for having experienced circumcision trauma and for erectile dysfunction drug use.

Infants Deeply Traumatized By Common Medical Procedures, New Study Suggests

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/infants-deeply-traumatized-medical-procedures-new-study-suggests-1

World-first MRI study shows babies experience pain ‘like adults’

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/292717.php

A Call to Connection: Making Childhood Trauma Personal | Dr. Allison Jackson | TEDxRVA

Therapist on Hidden Trauma of MGM

“Newborns have an exquisite sense of pain. Usually, circumcision [male sexual mutilation/male prepuce amputation] is done without parents in the room, and babies are restrained. It sounds like torture, doesn’t it? A baby’s prefrontal cortex develops during the first 18 months. The prefrontal lobes are involved in making higher ethical decisions and forming intimate relationships. When a baby’s needs aren’t met, he develops high levels of stress hormones that can become toxic and prevent proper brain development. The impact of circumcision on the prefrontal lobes hasn’t been researched. We know circumcision causes stress and raises stress levels thereafter.” ~ Lawrence Barichello

Jeanice Barcelo An excerpt from my book, “Birth Trauma and the Dark Side of Modern Medicine.”

“In addition to sexual problems and the lifelong loss of love, trust, bonding, and intimacy that is their birthright, circumcised men also suffer from a variety of neurological, psychological, sexual, and physical problems including, but not limited to, alexithymia, permanent brain damage, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anger, aggressiveness and/or withdrawal, suicidal impulses, depression, poor body image, low self-esteem, guardedness in relationships, orgasm difficulties, premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, and even criminal behavior and serial killing.”

“..In Norway, the only country that records the circumcision status of rapists, 2% of the population are circumcised and commit more than 80% of their rapes. And, since 1991 almost all wars involved one circumcised country with some conflicts between both factions being circumcised. This includes all USA conflicts since Vietnam.

No other statistical records are kept regarding the individual and social percentile circumcision status of serial killers or rapists. Yet, over 50% of rapes in Sweden are perpetrated by the minority of men who belong to circumcising cultures. Circumcision status may factor highly in the USA’s highest of all other country’s incarceration rate to population.…”

And

“When people are sexually abused at very young ages, they will not remember the abuse consciously in their later life. Subconscious memories pose grave problems – they are not easier than conscious memories to fix. To the contrary, they are far more dangerous and their effect far more pervasive, because the bearer responds to them automatically, and thinks their behavior is normal and not worthy of consideration.

The standard hospital procedure for circumcision is to first stimulate the baby’s penis until it sticks up, so naturally all circumcised men have a very strong subconscious confusion between sex and violence. Even Ted Bundy mused on the question of why he would connect two such seemingly disparate things, and confirmed that his perversion was triggered long ago:

This interest, for some unknown reason, becomes geared toward matters of a sexual nature that involves violence. I cannot emphasize enough the gradual development of this. It is not short term…

Remarkably, neither Bundy nor serial killer researchers ever bothered to ask if he was raped with a razor as an infant (which he almost surely was). Movies like “Ted Bundy” automatically start the story at his adulthood, instead of asking any questions about what was done to him as a child… Considering that Bundy was strapped down and raped with a razor blade… right out of the womb, which was not only his first sexual experience, but also one of his first life experiences in general, is he really insane for thinking sex and violence are related? Knowing his first suckling at his mother’s bust was shortly followed with the maximum pain known to man… is it really inexplicable that he’d scream f-you b–ch! when raping women and making them bleed? Far from it. Bundy’s response is one of the many normal responses that should be expected from infant genital mutilation.”

Circumcision: Serial Killing and Criminal Behavior in American Medical Violence

https://www.academia.edu/7151881/Circumcision_Serial_Killing_and_Criminal_Behavior_in_American_Medical_Violence

It is not coincidence that 11 out of 12 of the genocides that have taken place in recent history have involved circumcisers as either the primary victims or the primary aggressors, in three cases circumcisers were both the primary aggressors and the primary victims. Nor is it coincidence that societies where circumcision is practiced are constantly in conflict, either internally or externally. Read the work of James W Prescott for more information.

Circumcision, the psychological damage: a major but the most often unconscious trauma (psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry) 

https://www.academia.edu/4485079/Circumcision_the_psychological_damage_a_major_but_the_most_often_unconscious_trauma_psychology_psychoanalysis_psychiatry_updated_10.19.2016_

Man remembers MGM through therapy

Circumcision’s Psychological Damage

CDC wants all males to be cut–but it’s harmful psychologically

Posted Jan 11, 2015

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201501/circumcision-s-psychological-damage

Darcia Navaez Ph.D.

As psychologists, we are deeply concerned by the recently announced CDC guidelines promoting circumcision for all males, and in particular children. The CDC guidelines are based on a sharply criticized 2012 policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The 2012 statement was condemned by a large group of physicians, medical organizations, and ethicists from European, Scandinavian, and Commonwealth countries as “culturally biased” and “different from [the conclusions] reached by physicians in other parts of the Western world, including Europe, Canada and Australia” (Frisch et al., 2013).

The new CDC guidelines highlight methodologically flawed studies from Africa that have no relevance to the United States. They chose to ignore studies that were conducted in the United States and show no link between circumcision and the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV (Thomas et al., 2004).

“One newborn lost muscle tone, stopped breathing several times and vomited. The other choked and stopped breathing briefly, the researchers said.” – NY Times report

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/30/science/doctors-advocate-pain-relief-for-circumcision.html

http://edition.cnn.com/HEALTH/9712/23/circumcision.anesthetic/

THE LIMBIC IMPRINT

https://pathwaystofamilywellness.org/Pregnancy-Birth/the-limbic-imprint.html?fbclid=IwAR2It1dLrAE4yhu-nzfSVkkSQ9-1Q74xEN2ByMWXeSo8h6CmCqP8VisYVMY

AUTHOR // Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova

Labels: Pregnancy & Birth, Author Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova, Issue #25

Our first experiences in the world affect us in profound ways. How can we best make our child’s first experience as joyous and loving as possible?

Anew baby is an extremely sensitive being—in fact, more sensitive than he or she will ever be during adult life. Yet despite that sensitivity, we don’t cognitively remember our birth experiences. Nonetheless, for better or worse, those early impressions stay with us for the rest of our lives. Twenty-five years of thorough research in the field of prenatal psychology shows a direct correlation between the circumstances of our birth and the subconscious behavioral and emotional patterns in our adult lives. We are very familiar with establishing the basic settings in our TVs, cameras and other devices. Imagine setting the tint of your television to maximum green. No matter what appears on the screen, everything will have a greenish cast. Similarly, if the brightness is set on dim, your screen will show an unusually dark picture. A similar mechanism is at work in our brains.

This mechanism, called a limbic imprint, has been deliberately used for thousands of years to train animals, everything from dogs and horses to elephants and circus bears. For example, baby elephants are routinely chained to a small stake in the ground early in life. The elephant rages against the stake with all his might for a few days, until he finally stops. When he grows up and has enough strength to pull this stick right out, he doesn’t ever try.

Pathways Magazine

Appearing in Issue #25. Order A Copy Today

How a Limbic Imprint Forms

To better understand the limbic imprint, we need to understand the basic structure of our brain. At the tip of the spinal cord there is a segment called the brain stem (sometimes called the reptilian brain), responsible purely for the physiological functions of the body. Even when other parts of the brain are unresponsive, such as in the case of a coma, the brain stem ensures that the basic physiology of the body is still functioning. A comatose person’s lungs and heart still function. Women in a coma continue to menstruate, and pregnancies continue to gestate.

The exterior of the brain is called the cerebral cortex, and it is responsible for our mental activity. Sometimes referred to as the “gray matter,” it’s what we usually think of as the brain—the part that’s responsible for our cognitive functions, such as logic, memory and calculations.

Within the cerebral cortex is the cerebrum, which is divided into five lobes. The innermost of these is the limbic lobe, which is responsible for our emotions, sensations and feelings. The limbic lobe is not directly connected with the cortex. During gestation, birth and early childhood, the limbic system registers all of our sensations and feelings, but cannot translate them into memory, because the cortex hasn’t developed yet. Nonetheless, the echo of these sensations lives in the body throughout the rest of our lives, whether we realize it or not.

We come into this world wide-open to receiving love. When we do receive it, as our first primal experience, our nervous system is limbically imprinted—programmed—with an undeniable rightness of being. Being held in our mother’s loving arms and feeding from her breast provides us with a natural sense of bliss and security; it sets the world as the right place for us to be.

If our first impressions of being in the body are anything less than loving (for example, painful, frightening or lonely), then those impressions will imprint as our valid experience of love. It will be immediately coded into our nervous system as a comfort zone, acting as a surrogate for love and nurturing, regardless of how undesirable the experience actually was.

The Effects of the Limbic Imprint

As adults, we unconsciously, automatically recreate the conditions that were imprinted at birth and through early childhood. Research conducted by the pioneers of prenatal psychology, such as doctors Thomas Verny, David Chamberlain and William Emerson, shows that an overwhelming amount of physical conditions and behavioral disorders are the direct result of traumatic gestational experiences during pregnancy and complications during delivery. These can include sensory overload, unnecessary mechanical interventions, chemical stimulation, elective cesareans, circumcision, separation from mother right after birth, lack of breastfeeding and more.

Beyond the devastating effect of trauma during the actual birth, what happens afterward is also a source of trouble. These problems aren’t out of the ordinary; they’re a matter of routine impersonal postpartum hospital care. Lack of immediate warm, soft and nurturing contact with the mother, immediate cutting of the cord, rude handling, needles, bright lights, startling noises… all of this becomes instantly wired into a newborn’s nervous system as the new comfort zone. As the child grows, he’ll continue to unconsciously recreate and attract the same repeated situations of suffering, pain and helplessness, or else become abusive. Even if his rational mind later accurately recognizes this as a pattern of abuse, the imprinting will have already happened in a different part of the brain.

According to a 1995 study by Dr. William Emerson, 95 percent of all births in the United States can be classified as traumatic. Fifty percent were rated as “moderate” trauma, and 45 percent as “severe.” This problem affects all of us.

Born into excruciating labor pains or into the numbness and toxicity of anesthesia, we are limbically imprinted for suffering or numbness. Traumatic birth strips us of our power and impairs our capacity to love, trust, be intimate and experience our true potential. Addictions, poor problem-solving skills, low self-esteem and an inability to be compassionate or responsible have all been linked to birth trauma.

Breaking the Pattern Normally, a woman gives birth the way she herself was born. Due to limbic imprinting, that’s simply the way her body knows how to procreate. If she was born with complications, in all likelihood her body will repeat them. Unless she consciously alters that limbic memory, she will hand down her own birth trauma to her daughter, as she herself received it from her mother.

Giving birth for the first time is a huge opportunity for healing. So much can be done to prepare for a graceful, dignified delivery! How we experience life is greatly determined by our limbic imprint. It affects our likes and dislikes, our vocational and marital choices, what we find attractive and what repels us. We owe it to our children to provide a gentle arrival for them into our world, and learn to give birth without suffering.

In order to give birth to an enlightened masterpiece—whether it takes the form of a human baby, a beautiful poem, a healthy garden or simply a rich, fulfilling day that was worth living—we must first heal our own birth trauma. Despite the powerful force of limbic imprinting, healing is possible. There are many ways to recover our sense of well-being. We must recognize that, however harsh our beginnings, as adults we can change our basic settings, reprogram our limbic imprint and transmute our suffering and helplessness during birth into the love and joy of being alive on this planet.

I invite you to envision the possibilities that would open up for humankind if women fully claimed the original capacity of all mammals to give birth and raise our young without trauma. We can improve the quality of our species in just one generation by letting our children enter this world without being programmed for suffering and pain, instead bringing them into a world of safety, compassion and common sense. We cannot thrive as a species unless we create a new generation that was not damaged in utero by a high level of stress hormones in their mother’s bloodstream or by unnecessary physical and emotional traumas. As Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

When the consciousness of birth shifts from anxiety and fear to love and safety, then we will truly have a chance to reach our greatest potential. We can regain our authentic power, clear the pain of our ancestors from our system, and set the stage for our children to step into their lives as peaceful, empowered guardians of Earth.

Elena Tonetti

About the Author:

Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova is the founder of Birth into Being, an international movement for conscious procreation founded in 1982. She produced and directed the 2006 documentary, Birth as We Know It. She travels the world teaching her seminars, conducting apprenticeship trainings and speaking at conferences. For more information, visit BirthIntoBeing.com