Who can forget that first butterfly-kiss of life tickling your belly? Sometimes it feels like a bit of wind, but then it happens again and you stop what you’re doing and wait for it to happen again. A woman’s first connection with her unborn child. A gentle reminder that even though her baby is only a diagnosis and prognosis at this stage, he or she is a precious individual developing cell by microscopic cell according to the laws of creation established billions of years ago, handed down from generation to generation as a gift of new life and replicating in some way both mom and dad, grandparents, great-grandparents and countless ancestors, bequeathing to him or her, a spiralling genetic code of genius and intelligence!
Although mom-to-be only feels life for the first time when she is about five months pregnant (earlier for a second and consecutive pregnancies) an early scan (8 – 9 weeks) will show how the embryo is constantly moving and only briefly ‘sleeping’. At this very early stage, these movements are simply impulses from nerve fibres that control movement, stimulated by sensory impulses connected to the arms and legs – like a puppet on a string. Only a few months later, when these movements are felt for the first time, have they slowed down to become more deliberate and ‘goal orientated’. On the scan baby can be seen putting his hands in his mouth or covering his eye, stretching and yawning, bending and extending his arms and legs as though exercising and ‘warming-up’ for bigger things to come! While baby is getting these little kicks out of life, you’re on the plateau of your pregnancy. Hormones have settled, nausea (for most) is just a bad memory, people tell you that you’re glowing (shiny hair, healthy skin and nails) and you’re getting used to the idea of being a mother. You’re also beginning to wonder who and what your baby is – boy or girl – and who’s family genes s/he will inherit. All this from a little kick in the mysterious abyss of your womb!
That first little kick is just the beginnings of a lifelong journey of deliberate movement. At first your new-born is a bundle of survival ‘puppet-on-a-string’ reflexes, but only a few months later, these movements have become deliberate – sucking to sooth and taste and find out more about this object in his hand that he moves from one to the other, then back to his mouth again. Movement that strengthens muscles supporting bones, joints and cartilages that hold him together. Movement initiated from senses and instructions from the brain – yet constantly protected by the loving arms of a cautious parent, instinctively guiding their young.
Is it surprising then that a woman’s intuition leads her into recognising the significance of her baby’s first movements?
