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Free Resources
for Professionals

Professionals in Prenatal Sciences play a most significant role in the field of adding more value and quality to life. Here, is a collection of resources to help academia, researchers and professionals with their work. We add new data over time so please come back and ... share. 

Our prenatal life influences us throughout life; Being aware makes us free!

You do not plan your journey and if you think you do, think again. Well, Prenatal Psychology found me some 25 years ago, when I met one of the Pioneers. Soon I discovered that there was something of great value. The more I study it, the more I am aware of the depths of the wisdom it can reveal to those, like me, who have given their Hippocratic Oath to serve those clients that come to me in their process of re-establishing the broken continuum of their psychosomatic health.

 

What can we learn from the Pioneers in this field?

As T.S. Eliot says “Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future. And time future contained in time past…”. Studying some of the many beautiful minds and hearts who managed to get a glimpse of the truth of human reality shows us the direction to look at and see, ask appropriate questions and seek answers, more close to the truth answers, and design services and processes that serve humanity with kindness and respect. Studying pioneer work is studying what we experience now and what we will continue to see in the future. If nothing changes. If we can learn from the work of those who walked before us, we can make our own extra mile to be added to their journey of contribution. We do not need to rediscover the wheel but stand on the giants’ shoulders and reach new understandings.

 

Why do psychotherapists need to have this knowledge?

Psychotherapists are the ones who listen to the clients’ narratives (both somatic or words) and spot the seeds of what underlies the disease or dysfunction as well as the hints of bringing back to homeostasis of health. The benefits are huge. When psychotherapists learn how to read the causes of conflict and how to re-establish reconciliation, when they get acquainted with the primal signs in all aspects of us (words, cells, art…) on all levels, they can cut the healing process short as they will be able to get to the core right from the beginning avoiding the vicious cycle of going round and round and round of repeated scenarios and they will see their people and their environments thrive.

 

And how about obstetricians and midwives?

As for the obstetricians and midwives, they hold the present and the future of humanity in their hands. They are present even before conception (infertility cases or IVF), during pregnancy and the baby’s gestation and at birth and puerperium. This way, they become valuable transformation vehicles by being the ones who use this knowledge to apply Primordial Health Advancement Programs. The knowledge they gain through Prenatal Psychology will enable them to guide both the baby and the maternal environment to choices that contribute to health and adopt respectful processes to welcome our children. A little knowledge added for change on the birth scene, a huge change in the quality of life of the newborns.

 

How should society treat pregnant women and newborns?

There have already been 100 years of Prenatal Psychology in modern times. This means that we already know a lot. We know that whatever a human being experiences from even before conception to weaning is significant and gets imprinted on the self to be triggered and, if negative, cause disease and dysfunction in life after birth. It is important to invest in Primordial Health Advancement Programs and see that all involved in the welcoming of newcomers to life (pregnant couples, obstetricians, midwives, pediatricians, social workers, educators etc. ) are properly supported and professionally trained so that they become vehicles of health and civilization with multiple returns for the whole society. We need our policy makers understand and facilitate the incorporation of such programs for the babies in gestation and their parents but also the newborns, the schoolchildren and the teenagers as well as the young couples thinking of parenthood and the aging ones, to name some of the fields. Taking care of the beginning, we take care of the whole life continuum. Unfortunately, we still have to battle with ignorance, rigid protocols that do not take into account even scientific evidence, we face resistance to change and we pay the price of violence and fear. Too high!

 

Why this resistance?

It is understandable to unconsciously resist whatever brings us back to our primal beginnings as we are all creatures who have experienced the challenges of the sometimes hell-like gestation and labor. However, remember that each one of us is not just the identification of a trauma. Hiding in the shadow, resisting what we feel is our intolerable pain is far from safety and happiness, while allowing to embrace the darker areas of experience and learn from what we resist is the way of freedom that liberates us and all our dynamic treasure to live life in full. You deserve it. We deserve enjoying your full presence.


Now is the time!

Olga Gouni

prenatal psychologist, researcher, prenatal psychology educational programs for professionals, journal editor https://www.prenatalpsychology.org, https//www.cosmoanelixis.gr, https://www.journalprenatalife.com, email: info@cosmoanelixis.gr

The interview was (initially published https://eipmh.com/interview-olga-gouni/

'What The Embryo Has To Say About Togetherness' - free webinar with Dr. Jaap van der Wal
Earth Heart Connection

The language of nature is a felt language rather than a spoken language and entry is via heart. The video describes how this connection occurs and what results when we make it.

The Second Reproductive Revolution

On April 29, Cohen, who is one of the world's leading experts on the intersection of bioethics (sometimes also called "medical ethics") and the law, delivered a talk titled “The Second Reproductive Revolution,” focusing on how technology is changing reproduction from gene editing, to uterus transplants, to embryos derived from our skin.

Primal Health Research Databank

"Primal Health Research" explores correlations between the 'primal period' (fetal life, perinatal period and year following birth) and health and personality traits in later life. The databank is the result of diligent work of Michel Odent for many decades.

Babies Born Better (Survey & Findings)

Babies Born Better is a long term project examining the views and experiences of women who have given birth in the last 3 years. The aim of the Babies Born Better project is to become a major resource for the improvement of maternal and childbirth care around the world. By finding out what works, for whom and in what circumstances, the project data will provide insight into best practice during birth. Published papers based on the findings  of many European countries available on the website. The new survey is now open. Please, announce it among your friends and ask parents to participate. The raw data is available to researchers interested to analyze. For this see your country representative on the website. Thank you.

Trauma-Informed Care & Epigenetics Training (MOOC)

The course “Trauma-informed Care and Epigenetics is an introductory course for those already professionals in the fields of Maternity Care or students from the disciplines of Psychology, Medicine, Midwifery, Nursing, Social Work and/or Pedagogy. It aims:
1. To familiarize participants from birth-related environments with concepts like birth-trauma, PTSD, Trauma-Informed Care, Epigenetics, Transgenerational trauma.
2. To help them recognize causes and the related impact for all involved. They will be able to Identify Trauma in maternity services.
3. To let them know how to assess birth trauma and PTSD in research and clinical practice.
4. To help participants apply principles of trauma-informed care to maternity services.

The course is open to all interested and it is free. An outcome of COST ACTION CA18211

More publications from COST ACTION CA18211

A collection of recent publications relevant to Health Professionals and Maternity Care -some of them related to Covid-19 impact on parents and babies can be found online. Click below.

Covid-19 Handbook Resource List all hyperlinked (from COST Action CA18211)
 

Click below to get access to the toolkit and remember to visit the website for updates

BOOKS OF INTEREST

A list of pdf Books (open access) for professionals  to download

(In)FERTILE CITIZENS 
Anthropological and Legal Challenges of Assisted Reproduction Technologies

Venetia Kantsa, Giulia Zanini, Lina Papadopoulou (EDITORS)
First edition: October 2015,  ISBN 978-618-82208-5-0

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