What We Learn Before We're Born
Why You Should Listen to Her
Sylvia Nasar (author of A Beautiful Mind): "[Paul] combines impeccable science, extraordinary tenderness, and lyrical prose to produce a truly revolutionary chronicle of pregnancy."
To what extent do the conditions we encounter before birth influence our individual characteristics? It‘s the question at the center of fetal origins, a relatively new field of research that measures how influences outside the womb during pregnancy shape the physical, mental and even emotional well-being of the developing baby for the rest of its life.
To what extent do the conditions we encounter before birth influence our individual characteristics? It‘s the question at the center of fetal origins, a relatively new field of research that measures how influences outside the womb during pregnancy shape the physical, mental and even emotional well-being of the developing baby for the rest of its life.
Science Writer Annie Murphy Paul calls it a gray zone between nature and nurture in her book Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives, a study of this emerging field structured around a personal narrative -- Paul was pregnant with her second child at the time. What she finds suggests a far more dynamic nature between mother and fetus than typically acknowledged, and opens up the possibility that the time before birth is as crucial to human development as early childhood.
Read Annie Murphy Paul's essay on CNN.com
Subscribe to Annie Murphy Paul's The Brilliant Blog HERE.
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