Contributors
Laura Uplinger
Laura Uplinger is a proponent, educator and life-long student in the field of conscious pre-conception, prenatal and perinatal parenting. Since 1978, she has extensively promoted prenatal and perinatal education, conducting workshops and speaking at symposiums, forums and conferences in North America, South America, and Europe.
Work experience includes:- Chair of the XIII international congress of the Association for Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology and Health – APPPAH - “Birth & the Human Family ~ Embracing the Power of Prenatal Life” held in Los Angeles, 2007 (www.birthpsychology.com)
- Served on the Board of Directors of APPPAH from 1988 to 1999
- Facilitating ‘Mommy & Me’ groups in Los Angeles, 1997-1999
- Chair of the VI International APPPAH Congress, “Womb Ecology, World Ecology”, Washington, DC., 1993
- Member of the Psychosomatic Medicine Team in the Hospital da Lagoa and in the maternity ward of the Hospital Santa Casa da Misericordia, Rio de Janeiro, 1981-1985
- Working with CPAIMC (Center of Research and Assistance Integrated for the Woman and the Child) in a slum area of Rio de Janeiro, 1980-1981
- Preparing a Brazilian implementation of the Venezuelan “Family Project” for the Superintendent of Education and Culture in the State of Rio de Janeiro, 1980
- Staff Member of the “Proyecto Familia” in Caracas during the project’s pre-operational phase. A program of the Venezuelan Ministry for the Development of Intelligence, 1979
- Volunteer at the Children’s Orthopedic Hospital of Caracas, in charge of the children’s library, 1979
- Teacher of French, Spanish, Portuguese and English at the Berlitz School of Language in Caracas (1979) and Washington, D.C. (1987)
- Staff member of the Office of Public Information at UNESCO (United Nations Education Science, Culture & Communication Organization) in Paris, 1977-1978
- Licence de Psychologie Appliquée, Sorbonne, Paris V, 1977
Wrote the script of “A Gift for the Unborn Children” an award winning video (1985), and contributed a chapter on conscious conception entitled “A Cosmic Collaboration” to the anthology “The Marriage of Sex & Spirit&rdou;, published by Elite Books (2006)
“The power to create is one of the most divine attributes which man possesses. In his exercise of that power, he enacts microcosmically the great macrocosmic drama of creation. The fusion of the male and female organisms is a sacramental enactment of the great drama of the creation of the universe. When it is performed with the motive of pure and mutual love the two halves of God, as represented in man and woman, are united.”
Geoffrey Hodson, 1929
In the mid-seventies, a new field of psychology was born: Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology. In the past three decades, research studying the psychological factors that affect conception, pregnancy, birth, and the first months of life, have caused old assumptions to fall like leaves in a Canadian autumn. Even at the point in history when science was taking humans to the moon, we still mistakenly believed that the placenta could protect a fetus from practically everything happening to the mother. Likewise, a newborn was considered tabula rasa—a blank slate.
But Science is now revisiting this crucial chapter of our very early beginnings and making discoveries that have mighty implications for the kind of adults we become. Recent discoveries in biochemistry and cell biology have added to these scientific revelations about life before birth. For instance, hormones produced by psychological stresses endured by the pregnant mother actually influence placental vascular organization. This is startling, and highly motivating news.
In 2001, Neonatologist Jean Pierre Relier, editor of the prestigious Journal of the Neonate, wrote about the fundamental importance of psychoaffective equilibrium—in each of the parents—at the time of conception for healthy development of the embryo and placenta, which, in turn, prevents intrauterine growth retardation, prematurity, maternal hypertension, toxemia, and early miscarriage.
Thanks to pioneering popular books such as The Secret Life of the Unborn Child by Thomas Verny and The Mind of Your Newborn Baby, by David Chamberlain, little by little we have become more aware of what goes on psychologically before birth. For the last decade, Professor Bruce Lipton, a cell biologist, has been deciphering for the lay public, recent and exquisite scientific discoveries about the life of our trillions of cells. Especially revealing are Lipton’s elucidations as to how our cells take cues from their immediate environment in order to activate, or not, as the case may be, particular functions and specific genes.
From Harvard Medical school, we hear: “What goes on in the womb before you are born is just as important to who you are as your genes.” Thanks to recent epigenetic data, it is even possible to infer that the health of a 50 year old person depends more on the way she or he was formed in-utero than on eating and exercising habits.
Unfortunately, this understanding has not yet reached the general public worldwide; in fact, at the dawn of the second millennium, very few are familiar with the power of prenatal life. I first heard of it in the lectures of the Bulgarian spiritual teacher Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov. Nothing of the kind had ever been mentioned in my psychology classes at the university. Later, my continued interest in the subject led me to discover that sacred traditions have emphasized the importance of conception, pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding for centuries. Even in the Vedas, one of the oldest known scriptures, reference is made to the importance of the quality of conception.
Few important moments are more empowering, or harbinger more freedom as the conscious conception of a child. Such a momentous freedom to say YES to a cosmic collaboration and welcome the works of life in one’s body! Alchemists perceive the sperm as light in liquid state, gold being light made metal. What a gorgeous image to hold for this miraculous emergence of a human from the union of egg and sperm.
During the months leading to the conception of my child, I was aware that my body was to become an alchemical vessel for the making of a new human body. My husband and I had posted an ad in the galactic website of the universe, stating who we were and what we could offer to a soul wishing to join us. We carried on our daily activities in a mood of solemn expectation and profound surrender: was a soul going to be drawn to us?
On a clear and blossoming morning of May, we were willing to welcome an eventual earthling. I recall thinking: “Dear One, in case we are conceiving your physical body, we wish you a vast and luminous life.”
The formation of a child in the womb is analogous to the way a fruit grows on a tree. As everything matters inside and around that tree, every detail of the life of an expectant mother matters. And for Spirit, matter matters. A European physician from the 16th century, Paracelsus, wrote: “Woman is the artist of the imagination and the child in the womb is the canvas whereon she painteth her pictures.” The family of words “image,” “imagination,” “magus,” “matrix,” “matter,” “mama,” all contain the root sound “ma,” which means “mother” in the original root language of Sanskrit.
The formidable time of our formation before birth sets the stage for the way we relate to life. From the remarkable spiritual teachings of Rudolf Steiner in the early 1900s, we learned that, "During pregnancy, the mother's joy and pleasure are the forces that provide her baby with perfect organs." In 2004, renowned obstetrician Michel Odent demonstrated the same notion in an embryology lesson.
As I am writing these lines I have in front of me a beautiful painting representing a human fetus in the spiraling shell of a nautilus; above, in silvery letters, I read the following invitation: “Parenting Your Baby Before Birth – Explore the Relationship”. Our relationship with our children begins when we start wanting them, dreaming of them, conceiving of them. In fact, prenatal parenting sets the tone for the kind of parent we become, for the way we raise our children and accompany them throughout life. We draw strength, patience and determination, as well as inspiration, wisdom and love from such a powerful start; the children draw trust, balance and self-esteem.
Recently, I was deliciously surprised when Harvard Professor of Religious Symbology, Dr. Langdon, addressed the young men of his class in the following terms: “The next time you find yourself with a woman, look in your heart and see if you cannot approach sex as a mystical, spiritual act. Challenge yourself to find that spark of divinity that man can only achieve through union with the sacred feminine.” True, Professor Langdon is a fictitious character in Dan Brown’s, The Da Vinci Code, but my heart rejoiced when I saw this subject that is so central to my life’s work touched on with so much clarity in a runaway bestseller.
Somewhere in the last pages of his seminal book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill wonders what is germinating the future of our civilization... Well, I hope that all over the world, many high caliber human beings are on their way or have already been born out of their parents’ conscious intent. Brazilian psychiatrist and Jungian analyst Eleanor Luzes suggests that our times require the anthropological advent of the Homo sapiens frater. As a species, we are in need of more individuals capable of altruism, who cherish and foster brotherhood on Earth. Luzes believes it is imperative for every high school and college around the globe to impart the scientific and philosophical knowledge of the power to form babies who will grow up to be strong, caring, wise and creative individuals, aware of their kinship with all life. More than ever, we need people who embody lofty values of living, who use the power of their intelligence, the force of their love, and financial wealth to bring Heaven on Earth.
Even the best socio-economic and political measures will not be successfully implemented if we go on procreating the non-conscious way, ignoring the principles at work in conception, and in a pregnant womb. During pregnancy, a mother gives of her own substance for the formation of her child’s organs and psyche. This child will one day walk the Earth expressing peace, wisdom and generosity—or indifference, rage, and fear. The power of giving birth to civilizations is the very power nature has assigned to pregnant women. Hope for a brighter future lies on the correct understanding of the role nature has assigned couples and pregnant mothers. It is up all of us - fathers, families, and communities, nations - to support, empower and inspire each and every mother in her monumental endeavor of forming in her womb a healthy baby, a future adult who will be centered, intelligent, caring and creative. In fifty years time, conscious conception and gestation could indeed redeem our species and change the face of the world.
I know a planet
where nations live in peace,
and nature is respected,
where science and philosophy
are never used to enslave,
to limit, hurt or spread terror...
There, each person is conceived
and gestated consciously.
In that world reigns
a true spirit of kinship with all life,
and pregnant women are treated in a very special way:
the arts and crafts of each community
are made available to them.
They admire trees, statues and fountains,
as they walk through beautiful parks
filled with flowers.
By day, the birds’ songs embrace them.
By night, the stars
entice them to visit distant worlds...
In these parks there are houses
where the mothers can take part in many activities:
they sing, weave, sculpt, embroider, draw...
There are also theaters, libraries and cinemas,
and they can study, teach, meditate, laugh and cry.
In the schools of this planet
adolescents study the importance
of conception, pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding
for a happy humanity.
Couples approach knowingly
the moment of fecundation,
understanding the physiological,
psychological and spiritual dimensions of a pregnancy,
prepared to welcome the mystery of life with serenity.