At last, scholars, clinicians, and parents have a compendium that provides solid evidence for the life-long effects of the lived experiences of babies from pre-conception through the post-natal period. Ann Diamond Weinstein strategically brings together research and insights from numerous fields to inform everyone concerned with lifelong mental and physical health. This very readable book will become the reference for anyone concerned with foundations of health, the science of thriving, and resilience over the lifespan. -- Marti Glenn, PhD, Director, Quest Institute This important work elegantly weaves together a range of perspectives to show how the environment, and in particular traumatic stress, shapes a woman's experience of the childbearing year and that of her developing infant. Weinstein provides abundant evidence to highlight the prenatal period as a critical phase of development, and urges us to cross our artificial disciplinary boundaries to come together in a meaningful way to create nurturing environments for women and children. -- Mickey Sperlich, PhD, MSW, MA, CPM. Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo School of Social Work, and co-author of Survivor Moms The difference between surviving and thriving begins in the womb. Ann Diamond Weinstein effectively distills essential research, knowledge, and understandings of prenatal origins of postnatal neurobiology, psychology, and relationship dynamics. She compellingly presents the vital importance of gaining expertise to effectively assess high-risk mothers' needs, as well as to compassionately support women and girls and their babies to feel safe, to heal unresolved trauma and loss, and to experience a positive reciprocal mother-baby relationship during pregnancy. -- Wendy Anne McCarty, PhD, RN, Former Program Chair and Faculty, Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Graduate Programs, Santa Barbara Graduate Institute Compassionate plea for awareness of potential lifelong, epigenetic, transgenerational effects of adverse maternal bio-psychosocial experience on the neonate's developing autonomic nervous system from the moment of conception. This integration of genomics, physiology, neuroscience, psychology, and humanism reminds healthcare providers that every interaction with a pregnant woman could impact the delicate placental lifeline between a mother and the precious being within her womb. -- Patricia I. Gerbarg, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, New York Medical College, co-author of The Healing Power of the Breath
