What was the Pregnancy Like ?

*Please note- this blog post was written during my time at Brain Fit Academy Inc. I have since continued this amazing work under my own company- Brain FUNdamentals LLC. I hope you enjoy!

I've mentioned before about how at Brain Fit Academy, we talk a lot about babies. And, how could we talk about babies without talking about pregnancies?

When families first contact Brain Fit and are interested in setting up a screening for us to see their child, they fill in some paperwork. Actually, kind of a lot of paperwork- lol. The paperwork includes the developmental history of the child, questions about their concerns, and of course- questions about the pregnancy.

You may be wondering why the pregnancy is so important to us? Well, if you remember me talking about the primitive reflexes, you'll also remember me telling you that many of the reflexes emerge (show up) while the baby is still in utero. Crazy to think about that, I know. But when you're building the brain from the bottom up, that's where it begins- in utero.

So If we're talking about a fetus- still in utero when those reflexes emerge, then we need to know about the pregnancy!

Once parents have returned their paperwork to us, they meet with Pam on a Zoom call to go over the paperwork, discuss their child and learn a little about what we do at Brain Fit. And of course, talking about the pregnancy is included in that discussion.

It's interesting when you start to ask people about the pregnancy. Some parents may think they had an uneventful one. However, when we start to ask more questions, sometimes events that may seem like not such a big deal for the parents, are more important to us. Remember, that we look at things differently at Brain Fit, so things stand out to us that might not stand out to other people.

For example, we may ask a parent about the pregnancy and they might say something like:

"Oh, it was fine!"

"Although my mother-in-law passed away."

"And I had the flu that winter too (now that I think about it)."

"And then there was the move from California."

Ah.

You see- we know that the primitive reflexes we work on with kids (and teens and adults!) are still present because somewhere along the way they got "interrupted", or "stuck". We may not be able to pinpoint exactly where that might have happened, but if a mother has a lot of stress during her pregnancy, it could be a contributing factor. So when we hear a parent describe the pregnancy like they did above, it puts up a little red flag for us. It gives us a possible clue that there might have been some reflex "disruption" (for lack of a better word) while the infant was still in utero.

This is not to say that all moms who come through our doors had a difficult or stressful pregnancy, but many do. And if the pregnancy really was fine- that of course doesn't stop our conversation about the child. After all, the pregnancy is just the beginning of the journey for the family. We then ask about infancy, toddlerhood, and so on. All in an effort to help us get a sense of what might be going on with the child.

Ultimately, as I wrote about in the post "Everyone is So Different", everyone that comes to Brain Fit is different and has different needs. We meet all of them where they are and move them forward.

We start with a conversation about the pregnancy because that's where it all began. We start there, but as we learn more about the child from the parents (and then when we meet the child themselves) we look at those behaviors that may be "unexplained" by others. We look at things from a Brain Fit perspective and we start to think about how we want to start working with that particular child.

Knowing about the pregnancy is important to us and is a piece of your child's puzzle.

But don't worry- if you had a toddler running around and that pregnancy is pretty much a big blur (like for me!) it's ok. We can still work with your child and move them forward.

After all, it's what Brain Fit Academy does- no matter where the story starts from.