‘The emotional rights of prenatal children and newborn babies’
A proposal for a resolution of the ISPPM in Heidelberg 2005
The ISPPM (International Society of Pre and perinatal Psychology and Medicine) is a scientific interdisciplinary society of which the main goal is to draw attention to the field of human development, especially the prenatal and perinatal stages of life. The ISPPM also wants to promote primary prevention of physical and mental disorder in man.
It is from this perspective that the ISPPM board has decided to organise a worldwide discussion platform on the human rights of the prenatal and newborn child. Scientific research and psychotherapeutic findings have shown that human life begins in the womb. The prenate has a psyche and that it is very sensitive for outside influences.
These findings are known too little to the general public and to policymakers. Important new insights in prenatal development can lead to recommendations to (future) parents and to society as a whole. This recommendations can benefit the emotional development of the child.
Gaby Stroecken and Rien Verdult (ISPPM member), psychotherapists from Belgium, have worked on a ‘Charter on the emotional rights of prenatal children and newborn babies’. This ten-point charter is based on the three p’s from the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child’, namely: provision, protection and participation. Their charter shall be used as a starting point for this discussion*.
The ISPPM has decided to organise this discussion in order to bring the knowledge on prenatal and perinatal findings to a broader public. Science must have a social function and clinical findings must not be kept within the safety of the practice.
This discussion must lead towards a resolution on the next ISPPM international congress in 2005, which will take place in Heidelberg.
This discussion shall be coordinated by Rien Verdult, in close cooperation with the president of the ISPPM, Ludwig Janus.
Contribution to this discussion on emotional rights for prenatal and newborn babies can be research findings, clinical findings or personal reflections.
This discussion wants to ask attention for the importance of the prenatal life for the well being of the developing child and later adult. This discussion is primary focussed on the emotional development and emotional needs of the prenatal child.
This discussion is focussed on the child’s development and needs. Its development takes place in close interaction with the mother and her partner, but their needs and choices, their personal experiences are not the main focus. This discussion is not on the ‘rights’ of parents.
We do not want to burden mothers nor fathers, but wants to support them in conscious parenting from conception on.
The prenatal child is a human being from the beginning of conception.
The prenatal child has a personal identity and integrity.
Empirical and experiential research has proven that prenatal and perinatal experiences already exist in the womb and that they are of the utmost importance for the developing child and its later life.
Prenatal and perinatal experiences are of great importance for the mental and physical health of the child and the later adult.
For the prenatal child feeling bonded which his mother (her psyche and her body), and through her with his father and the external world, is its primal connection.
Emotional development is fundamental to social and intellectual functioning.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, proclaimed by the UN in 1989, was a historic step forwards in human rights for children. Not only were human rights ascribed to the child, the child is also seen a fully valued human being. The child was no longer the not-yet-adult, but a human being on its own, with a dignity and freedom of its own, and with rights of his own. The human rights for children can be classified into three groups: provison, protection and participation. The goals of the convention are to increase the provision of services for children such as education, health care and social security; to increase the protection of children against abuse, neglect or exploitation, and to increase the participation of children in the democratic institutions of society.
The UN ‘Convention on the Rights of Children’ guarantees developmental rights which allow children to reach their fullest potential. These developmental rights must also be guaranteed for the prenatal child.
The ‘Charter on the emotional rights of prenatal and newborn child’ is an attempt to make these developmental rights of the UN convention concrete. This charter talks on emotional rights because emotional development is seen as fundamental for the well being of the child. Rights are defined here as fundamental basic needs that are to be fulfilled for a healthy emotional development. The rights or basic needs of the child are stressed in this charter.
The ‘Charter on the emotional rights of the prenatal and newborn child’.
1). Every child has the right to have a father and a mother of its own.
From a legal viewpoint parents don’t have the right to claim a child. On the other side, when a child is conceived it has the right to have, or at least to know, his father and mother. Not knowing the biological parents cuts the child off from his roots. Reproductive techniques disconnect biological from psychological parenthood, which makes it difficult if not impossible for the child to know his biological roots.
2). Every child has the right to be conceived naturally.
Although the psychological findings on the first trimester of life are still preparadigmatic, there are indications that some sort of consciousness and some sort of cell memory start at the very beginning of life. The fertilisation of the egg by the sperm takes place not only in a biochemical surrounding, but also in a psychological atmosphere, which leaves early imprints on the psyche of the embryo. Therefor we should be very cautious with intervention in this area. The reproductive medicine has developed artificial reproductive techniques, without overseeing the psychodynamic consequences. Clinical findings show that some sort of conception experience or conception shock exists.
3). Every child has the right on secure prenatal bonding.
The fetus is a sensitive;, active and communicative human being. The fetus is very sensitive to his mother’s attitude toward her pregnancy. His security is based on her emotional involvement to his life. The relationship with her is of vital importance to him. He feels what she feels; her stress and anxiety can become his stress and anxiety. Symbiosis can only be fully established if the mother is accepting her child with all her love and without any reservation. Also the mothers stress and anxiety can disturb the forming of a symbiotic relationship, leaving the fetus in despair as his survival in a psychological sense as well, can be under threat.
4). Every child has the right to be born naturally.
The child being born plays the leading role in a subtle communication process with the mother and her body. In Western society birth has become a medical problem, and is no longer a natural process. Medical intervention during birth disturb the birthing relationship and can lead to psychological trauma in the child. Medical intervention give rise to bonding problems during and after birth, to a shock syndrome and to invation/controle complex problems. Birth traumas can have lifelong effects. Emergency interventions must be judged from a holistic viewpoint on well being of the perinatal child, and routine intervention without any sufficient medical indication should be avoided.
5). Every child has the right to be in his mothers arms.
Restoring bodily contact immediately after birth is most important for the baby, in order to restore the symbiotic relationship with the mother and her body. Birth is a transition not a rupture of this symbiotic relation. The sooner the contact with the body is regained the sooner the child can feel safe, can come to rest and can recover from the physical and psychological tensions he has experienced during the birth process. This early imprint of attachment has lifelong effects and gives rise to a basic sense of trust, as the ego-psychologist Erik Erikson called it.
6). Every child has the right to be breast-fed.
The WHO has promoted breastfeeding because its composition is linked to the baby’s needs. Mother’s milk stimulates the immune system. Besides the fact that breastfeeding has physiological advantages, it also plays an important role in the attachment relationship. Breastfeeding implies body-contact, eye-contact and sucking, and these self attachment behaviours occur only minutes after birth. Breastfeeding plays a important role in restoring and continuing the symbiotic relation between mother and child.
7). Every child has the right to have available, sensitive and responsive parents.
As Bowlby has shown a secure attachment relation is based upon a mother who is available when the child needs her. If she is sensitive to his basic needs and if she responses to his signals, child develops a basic sense of trust. A sensitive mother senses the bodily felt needs and feelings of her child. A secure attachment relation is based on the fulfilling of these basic needs at the moment when the baby needs it most. This gives the baby trust in its caregiver and in its self. This basic sense of trust and security is determining the future healthy development.
8). Every child has the right to experience his own feelings.
To become a fully functioning person, as Carl Rogers has described, it is important that the child can keep in contact with his experienced feelings. In order to be able to have a bodily felt meaning come to conscious awareness the child must find support and containment to experience his feelings. The ‘good-enough’- parent (Winnicott) provides the child with a containing environment so that it can learn to deal with complex emotions and feelings.
9). Every child has the right to have his basic needs fulfilled.
The humanistic psychologist Maslow has develop a hierarchy of basic needs that have to be fulfilled in order to function in a healthy way. These needs not only include physiological needs, but also the needs for safety, belongingness, estimation. These deficiency needs must be met sufficiently and at the right time in the development of the child, so that the growth needs can emerge. These growth needs are called selfactualisation. To become oneself, that is to realize one’s potentials, is based on childhood experiences within a secure attachment. ‘Not being seen’ and ‘not being heard’ will produce breakdown, compliance and a ‘false’ self, as Winnicott has indicated.
10). Every child has the right to have his boundaries respected.
The bodily and psychological integrity of the child should be protected by respecting his bounderies. Bounderies result from the separation-individuation process and are essential in developing a basic sense of ‘I am’ and ‘I am different’ and ‘I may be different from my mother’. Healthy tendencies, such as to open or to close oneself, to protect oneself against dangers without shutting off or splitting off, is developed in a secure and respecting relationship, prenatally and in early childhood.
Although we accept that this charter is confronting parents with there daily childrearing practices, although we can understand that these ideas may give rise to feelings of guilt, in the name of the vulnerable prenatal and newborn child we need to speak them out loudly. Guilt does not lead to responsibility. On the basis of scientific and psychotherapeutic evidence we need to inform parents about the recent finding on prenatal bonding and postnatal attachment and its importance for a healthy personality development. It is in society’s interest that we help parent to become aware of their vital influences on the child’s well being and that they started to influence from conception on. The prenatal life and the first two years of the child are crucial to his later functioning. Working on a peaceful and non violent world includes conscious parenthood. As the Canadian prenatal psychiatrist Thomas Verny has stated: conscious parenthood includes three principles, namely personal growth work by each future parent to process any psychological complexes that may interfere with their becoming loving and caring parents; an examination by each partner of their relationship to each other and a willingness to engage in open and honest communication; an appreciation of the essential humanity of the unborn child and his or her need for love and affection both pre and postnatally. We would like to add a fourth condition to conscious parenting. Every future parent should make contact with his or hers ‘inner child’ and to recognise his or her unmet needs from very early childhood. Restoring the contact with one’s ‘true self’ is an essential dedication to future parents.
We call upon future parents, parents, teachers, doctors, (mental) health care workers, politicians and everyone who feels connected with the welfare of the prenatal child to take part in this discussion.
We call upon participators in this discussion to bring in research, clinical findings or personal reflections into the platform.
Reaction can be mailed to:
ISPPM: secretary@ISPPM.de
Rien Verdult: rien.verdult@skynet.be