Pre- and perinatal psychology

Pre- and perinatal psychology is the study of the psychological effects and implications of the earliest experiences of the individual, before birth ("prenatal"), as well as during and immediately after childbirth ("perinatal"). Although theoretical and therapeutic approaches vary in their treatment of the topic, a common thread is the fundamental importance of pre- and perinatal experiences in the shaping of the personality and in future psychological development. This assertion is not widely supported in mainstream contemporary psychology, owing to widespread doubt regarding the extent to which newborn infants are capable of forming memories, the effects of any such memories on their personality, and the possibility of recovering such unconscious or repressed memories. (It should also be noted that the majority of psychologists have not had direct personal experience of the therapeutic modalities that explore these phenomena, which might assist them in assessing their validity.)

The relevance of birth experiences has been recognized since the early days of modern psychology. Although Sigmund Freud touched on the idea briefly before rejecting it, his disciple Otto Rank became convinced of the importance of birth trauma in causing anxiety neuroses. Rank developed a process of psychoanalysis based on birth experiences, and authored his seminal work, The Trauma of Birth, in 1924. Freud, however, disagreed with Rank, causing them to part ways, and relegating the study of birth trauma to the fringes of psychology. The subject was taken up again in 1949 by Nandor Fodor, who, in addition to birth trauma, emphasized the significance of prenatal trauma.

Developments in the 1950s included a shift in emphasis towards non-traumatic (e.g. Donald Winnicott) and spiritual (e.g. Lietaert Peerbolte) aspects of pre- and perinatal experience -- and brought attention to the relevance of very early gestation, and even the event of conception (e.g. Peerbolte) -- topics that saw later elaboration by Frank Lake, Michael Irving, Graham Farrant, Stanislav Grof and others. The expression at a broad social level of basic perinatal feelings, such as "suffering fetus" or "poisonous placenta," plays a fundamental role in the field of psychohistory, developed by Lloyd deMause. Pre- and perinatal psychology also plays a very important role in Primal therapy and Primal integration.

Material emerging from sessions of psychedelic psychotherapy using LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs was the foundation for research into the relevance of pre- and perinatal experiences conducted by Frank Lake, Athanasios Kafkalides and Stanislav Grof. Grof, in particular, formulated an extensive theoretical framework for the analysis of pre- and perinatal experiences, based on the four constructs he called Basic Perinatal Matrices. Lake and Grof independently developed breathing techniques as an alternative to the use of psychedelic drugs, which was subject to considerable legal difficulty from the mid-1960s onwards. A related technique called Rebirthing Breathwork was developed by Leonard Orr; and Core process psychotherapy trainees relive birth trauma as part of their training.

Public attention was drawn to the importance of prenatal experiences by the 1981 book, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, by Thomas R. Verny, who founded the Association for Pre- & Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH). David Chamberlain, who was president of the APPPAH from 1991 to 1999, published a popular book entitled, Babies Remember Birth (1988), outlining new experimental research that supports the existence of pre-natal memories. Further evidence was presented by Ludwig Janus in The Enduring Effects of Prenatal Experience (1997).

Perhaps the first book to effectively convey the importance of trauma-free childbirth to the wider public was Birth Without Violence (1975), by French obstetrician Dr. Frederick Leboyer, which helped popularize the practice of placing newly-born infants in a tub of warm water -- known as a "Leboyer bath" -- to simulate the familiar pre-natal environment of warm amniotic fluid. Following on from Leboyer, another French obstetrician, Michel Odent, pioneered the practice of low intervention labour and took the "Leboyer bath" one step further, developing the use of warm-water pools for water births.

Selected references

 * O. Rank, The Trauma of Birth, 1924; Dover 1994 reprint: ISBN 0-486-27974-X
 * F. Leboyer, Birth Without Violence, 1975; 2nd revision 2002: ISBN 0-89281-983-9; also online (see below)
 * T. Verny, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, 1981; Dell 1982 reprint: ISBN 0-440-50565-8
 * F. Lake, The First Trimester, 1982
 * A. Janov, Imprints: The Lifelong Effects of the Birth Experience (1984) ISBN 0-399-51086-9
 * S. Grof, Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death and Transcendence in Psychotherapy, 1986 ISBN 0-87395-899-3
 * D. Chamberlain, Babies Remember Birth, 1988; 3rd edition (The Mind of Your Newborn Baby) 1998: ISBN 1-55643-264-X
 * L. Janus, The Enduring Effects of Prenatal Experience: Echoes from the Womb, 1997, ISBN 1-56821-853-2
 * M. D. Adzema, Falls From Grace: Spiritual and Philosophical Perspectives of Prenatal and Primal Experience 2004 (online, below)