Memory Lane

Happy Spring! We are finally having some sunshine up here in our corner of the PNW and buddy it feels good. It is the time of year when baby goats, pigs, and chicks are running around all over our farm and all these babies made me think of some interesting research about us human babies. In 2009, Mampe et al. (see link below) did a study showing that the cry of newborn infants matched the melody of the language that their parents spoke. The study looked at French and German speaking households and found the French babies cry used a rising melody contour and the German babies cry had a falling contour which are characteristic of the intonations used in these languages. This shows that language development begins well before birth and emphasizes the importance of talking to babies in the womb. 

But I’m going to take it one step further. Some of the most interesting work I do in physical therapy is a technique that helps the body release emotional memories. I can’t even count the times I have seen someone with physical pain because of myofascial holding patterns that the body is using to protect them from a past trauma. Let me be very clear that these past events aren’t always what we think of now as traumatic (although they definitely can be). I once had a patient who had a holding pattern from when they were three years old and their mom wouldn’t give them a cookie. Maybe not a game changer for us now, but as a toddler that cookie was a deal breaker. I have also seen people release memories from when they were in the womb. These have ranged from stressful events their mom endured while pregnant or feelings their mom had during gestation.

It might sound a little flaky to some people who haven't gotten outside the Western Medicine model but let me assure you that we remember everything at a cellular level. This is how we learn and survive. This article we reviewed today not only shows that infants start learning language in the womb but it can also hint to the fact that we can experience love, and unfortunately trauma, in there as well. 

So the take home message… Be kind to pregnant moms! But also talk to your baby before they are born. Those little ones are experiencing not only your sounds, but your emotions and energy as well. 

And if you ever want to take a trip down memory lane and see if any emotional memories might be holding you back give me a call.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982209018247