„I feel – so I am“
Needs of antenatal children and their parents in the area of tension
between birth-cultural developments, health-politics, basic rights, ethics, and economy
27thAnnual Conference of ISPPM
Berlin-Spandau, Ev. Johannesstift
23rd – 25th of October, 2015
Childhood experiences have serious effects on the psychosocial and somatic development of a human being.
However, during the last decades the knowledge developed that even the intrauterine area of life has got an engraving meaning for the child – always in relation to the experience of pregnancy by his parents.
The consequences from these new insights of prenatal psychology, neurobiology, stress-research, psychotherapy, and psychosomatics are so important that they need more attention than before when dealing with care-taking of pregnant women and the planning of prevailing conditions for parenthood.
So it is important to denote the societal condition with which pregnant women are confronted and their antenatal children often are exposed to, and to look for ways to change the attitude towards pregnancy and birth. Societal change of values, medical developments, juridical grey areas, and market economical interests increasingly influence the individual experience of pregnancy and birth and the important transition to live together with children in a family.
The mental state of mother and child during pregnancy and birth lastingly influences the somatic and psychic development of each human being and society, consisting of individuals, too.
The preventive care-taking for the antenatal child and his parents thus is a societal task of utmost importance.
The starting point of the conference is the “Charta of the Rights of Children before, during, and after birth” which had been passed in 2005 by ISPPM. The Charta should be examined to its meaningfulness today taking in regard the UN-Convention of Children´s Rights and actual developments, and leeway of societal actions should be considered.
The target of the conference is to convey knowledge about the meaning of the prenatal span of life, to show areas of tension, and to look for solutions to improve the conditions for pregnancy and birth.
We know that the theme of our conference might touch areas of insoluble dilemmas. We shall try to deal with the different experiences and ideas without putting them into the centre of interest.