Futurelearn

About what extreme environments do to children – it is heartbreaking and was hard to watch/read because all I could think about was that I want better for Theo… and I hope I will give him that. I learned about how attention deprivation is a consequence of extreme environments and that children can go from very interactive to uninterested in a short space of time.

I watched videos on different types of attachment formed with babies, and how these can affect interactions and personalities formed in later life. The course also covered pregnancy and how we can affect our babies in the womb. I have recently watched a few TED talks on pregnancy and parenthood and I will at some point make a post about my favourite ones.

It was enlightening to learn about how a mothers mental and physical state can affect her unborn child in such unforeseen ways; I am not talking about drug abuse but rather stress during pregnancy and it contributing to having a child more likely to be anxious or have mental health problems. Interestingly, we learned about how in the Danish famine mid 20th century, the babies of mothers pregnant during that time were likely to develop health conditions of the heart or be obese – and apparently this is because of the rewiring of development while in the womb.

The material in the course really strengthened my resolve to keep calm and be happy about my pregnancy. This isn’t always easy but I am doing my best and I know that more than anything I want to give my baby a good life.

It reiterated the importance of attention and reactions to a baby, in terms of mirroring their expressions to help them understand and feel safe. I want my baby to feel safe with me and I hope that even though it might not come easily all the time, I help him feel secure and loved in the world around him.

We also talked about post natal depression and while I know that I have a 9/10 chance of not experiencing it, I also know that it is something that could happen. The course hit home how much having PND can affect a baby if untreated so I am now much more aware of how important it is to seek help… and also acutely aware that it really can happen to anyone.

I didn’t buy the certificate for the course… I did it for my own personal knowledge and I am glad that I did. I would also recommend it to anyone who is interested – it helps reflect on personal experiences with childhood, ambitions for raising children or perhaps also reflections on how you have raised/are raising them and generally is quite an interesting nugget of information.