This has been one topic which has stimulated my thought process for quite some time. Garbhsanskar is a sanskrit word. It can be divided into two parts – “Garbh“, which means womb and “sanskar” which means good values. So it means passing on good values to the fetus while its in the womb by parents. The story of Abhimanyu is well known in the Mahabharata. Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, learned how to enter the Chakravyuha (the strategic arrangement of warriors to entrap and defeat the enemy) when he was in his mother’s womb. Abhimanyu had heard and remembered the narration of the technique by Krishna to Subhadra during her pregnancy.

There is tons of literature available in India regarding this topic. Also there are hundreds of Garbhasankar classes run by doctors, yoga gurus, babas etc etc. It attempts to teach it in the mostly unreasonable and unrealistic spiritual and religious context. It would suggest set of shlokas and mantras in sanskrit (which most of us cannot parse and understand), religious books, devotional songs, visit temples, prayers, meditation etc. According to them, parents and particularly mother can help to determine the future of the baby. BTW, the most popular CD and book is this.

Let me try to explain what I understand as Garbhsanskar and why it is important. It would be very interesting to hear your opinions on this very controversial topic.

I think there are three stages of Garbhsanskar – pre conception, conception and during the pregnancy.

Pre-conception

Pre-conception stage is really about the health of the mother and her physical fitness for the pregnancy. During pregnancy mother would undergo lot of physiological and hormonal changes, this stage is about preparing yourself, mentally and physically, for all of those changes. For example, it is well established that folic acid deficiency is responsible for neural defects and mental disorders. Similarly vitamins, sugar, hormones and other chemicals have a role in the birth of physically and mentally healthy baby. So the pre-conception stage of Garbhsankar deals with the diet and health of the mother. All of us know that environment and surrounding has profound effect on all kids. So this stage is to ensure that the environment where baby is going to grow for next 9 months is healthy, I call it as the Womb Environment.

Conception

This stage is about the genes. Features unborn would inherit from parents. This is complete lottery. Science clearly states that genes are immutable. So no matter what you read, what you eat, what you listen, it is not going to change your genes and one cannot control what the unborn will inherit from mother and father. So any literature or tales which suggests that eating a particular type of food can ensure the baby fair color is all bogus. This topic needs a separate details post.

During Pregnancy

All the efforts during this stage is directed towards keeping expectant mother happy. We know that stress, frustration, anger, irritation etc produces certain type of hormones which can potentially have some effect on the prenatal baby. So the traditional Grabhsankar suggest shlokas, mantras, prayers etc but I think any activity which can help mother happy is fine, it could art, music, movies, prayers anything.

Today, science has proved that intrauterine baby can not only listen, touch, feel but also can respond by its own way . 60 % of brain development occurs in intrauterine period. The suggestions against horror movies, action movies, loud music etc is I believe because it can disturb the sleeping baby. It has nothing to do with passing on bad values.

I think all of this is directed towards keeping expectant mother happy & making pregnancy a joyful experience.  What do you think?

The real challenge starts after the birth .