My passion for babies stems from my own early attachment experiences. Part of my healing journey has been collecting a personal history of my own time during conception, gestation, birth, and infancy. I am lucky enough to have both parents alive and well enough to share their memories of that time with me. I know a few of my own stressful imprints come from the time I spent in the NICU, being parented by hippies who weren’t able to do their own therapy before passing along unconscious generational wounds. I internalized their stress and feel those impacts today.
Moreover, I can point to my own past pre and perinatal experiences as the origin of the limitations I have today. These are unconscious memories stored as body sensations, painful emotions, and limiting beliefs about my self-worth and self-efficacy. All of this despite having two loving parents who were giving their best who simply didn’t understand the infant needs I had for emotional and physical security.
Infants are unable to advocate for themselves and are completely dependent on their caregivers to provide a solid foundation for development. This makes infants our most vulnerable citizens because their needs are often misunderstood in the context of lifespan development.
During infancy, the foundation for lifelong learning, personality, health, and happiness is formed.
What is lesser-known, is that development actually begins prenatally and is largely influenced by the parents’ emotional states. This points to the importance of accessing support all through pregnancy and beyond. An infant’s nervous system develops and grows in direct relation to the experiences infants are having. Because of how rapidly development occurs, it doesn’t take much stress to make a lasting imprint. And yet, early caregiving is one of the most stressful experiences for families.
However, if caught in time, the effects of stressors and trauma can possibly be amended and even avoided in the future.
My life’s work has been dedicated to understanding infant development and how daily caregiving shelters or exposes infants to stress; stress that resides in the body-mind-spirit in non-verbal, hard to pinpoint ways that interrupt optimal growth and the fullest expressions of life.
Working with babies is the most direct form of prevention and early intervention, and can change the entire trajectory of growth for individual and population health.
It would be my honor to work with you, your family, and your baby. Collectively, by investing in prenatal and infant-parent health, we can shape the next generation to feel secure, connected, and whole.
