Searchlights on Health/Prenatal Influences
PRENATAL INFLUENCES.
1. DEFINITION.—By prenatal influences we mean those temporary operations of the mind or physical conditions of the parents previous to birth, which stamp their impress upon the new life.
2. THREE PERIODS.—We may consider this subject as one which naturally divides itself into three periods: the preparation which precedes conception, the mental, moral and physical conditions at the time of conjunction, and the environment and condition of the mother during the period of gestation.
3. PROMINENT AUTHORITIES.—A.E. Newton says: "Numerous facts indicate that offspring may be affected and their tendencies shaped by a great variety of influences, among which moods and influences more or less transient may be included."
Dr. Stall says: "Prenatal influences are both subtle and potent, and no amount of wealth or learning or influence can secure exemption from them."
Dr. John Cowan says upon this subject: "The fundamental principles of genius in reproduction are that, through the rightly directed wills of the father and mother, preceding and during antenatal life, the child's form or body, character of mind and purity of soul are formed and established. That in its plastic state, during antenatal life, like clay in the hands of the potter, it can be molded into absolutely any form of body and soul the parents may knowingly desire."
4. LIKE PARENTS, LIKE CHILDREN.—It is folly to expect strong and vigorous children from weak and sickly parents, or virtuous offspring from impure ancestry.
Dr. James Foster Scott tells us that purity is, in fact, the crown of all real manliness; and the vigorous and robust, who by repression of evil have preserved their sexual potency, make the best husbands and fathers, and they are the direct benefactors for the race by begetting progeny who are not predisposed to sexual vitiation and bodily and mental degeneracy.
5. BLOOD WILL TELL.—Thus we see that prenatal influences greatly modify, if they do not wholly control, inherited tendencies. Is it common sense to suppose that a child, begotten when the parents are exhausted from mental or physical overwork, can be as perfect as when the parents are overflowing with the buoyancy of life and health? The practical farmer would not allow a domestic animal to come into his flock or herd under imperfect physical conditions. He understands that while "blood will tell," the temporary conditions of the animals will also tell in the perfections or imperfections of the offspring.
6. HEALTH A LEGACY.—It is no small legacy to be endowed with perfect health. In begetting children comparatively few people seem to think that any care of concern is necessary to insure against ill-health or poverty of mind. How strange our carelessness and unconcern when these are the groundwork of all comfort and success! How few faces and forms we see which give sign of perfect health. It is just as reasonable to suppose that men and women can squander their fortune and still have it left to bequeath to their children, as that parents can violate organic laws and still retain their own strength and activity.
7. RESPONSIBILITY OF PARENTS.—Selden H. Tascott says: "Ungoverned passions in the parents may unloose the furies of unrestrained madness in the minds of their children. Even untempered religious enthusiasm may beget a fanaticism that can not be restrained within the limits of reason."
In view of the preceding statements, what a responsibility rests upon the parents! No step in the process of parentage is unimportant. From the lovers first thought of marriage to the birth of the child, every step of the way should be paved with the snow-white blossoms of pure thought. Kindly words and deeds should bind the prospective parents more closely together. Not mine and thine, but ours, should be the bond of sympathy. Each should be chaste in thought and word and deed as was Sir Galahad, who went in search of the Holy Grail, saying:
- "My strength is as the strength of ten,
- Because my heart is pure."