Superstition concerning prenatal culture
Upon the growth of the human embryo, or so-called prenatal culture, there exists a great deal of popular superstition, which is utterly groundless from the standpoint of accurate science. The views that have been promulgated regarding prenatal culture are for the main part harmless, and, for that matter, may be productive of good.
Theory of prenatal culturists
The idea of the prenatal culturist is that the mental as well as the physical growth and development of the unborn child can be controlled by the mother. The only ground for this belief is as follows: The child is nourished from the blood or nutritive fluid of the mother, with the result that the growth and the development of the child may be very readily influenced by the nutrition of the mother.
Influence of fright, anger, etc.
The mental condition of the mother has an influence on the growth of the child, but it is indirect. All organs and functions of the human body are controlled by the nervous system, and if the nervous impulse be deranged or weakened it may result in a serious impairment of nutrition. For this reason fright, anger, and other strong passions may result in lasting injury to the unborn child, but this injury is at most a matter of stunting or malnutrition, and cannot result in the voluntary mental life of the mother being transmitted to the child.
Mother's nutrition the only factor in influencing her child
As evidence of these assertions, I would call the reader's attention to the fact that there is no nervous connection whatever between the embryo and the mother, but after the fertilization of the germ-cell, the only way in which the mother can influence the growth of the child is by the nutrition which her blood supplies to the growing tissue of the embryo.
Birthmarks