The spiritual and emotional territory of the unborn and newborn baby

Nature is always seeking to express itself. Everywhere we look there is evidence of the profusion of life. Farmers know when conditions are favourable, the harvest is bountiful. The natural world has an innate, constantly evolving blueprint for creating, growing, developing and reproducing itself. Scientific understanding about the complexity of life is also growing and developing. Scientific perceptions are shifting from the limitations imposed by the fixed, mechanical Newtonian view of a material universe which contains solid structures and empty space to that of quantum physics, which explains the cosmos as an intelligent, conscious, self-aware, interconnected, vibrating field of possibilities and information. In the quantum physics view, matter and energy are interchangeable. The cosmos and everything in it is constantly creating, adjusting and changing in response to environmental signals. From this perspective, health and disease relate to how the cells in the body interact with each other and their environment. This means that all phenomena, including pregnancy and birth involves a process of co-creation as consciousness, energy and information interact and coalesce into matter and experience. This chapter shows how a mother thinks, feels, is treated, nurtured and cared for during her whole childbearing experience is of vital importance