Pre-Parenting: Nurturing Your Child from Conception

by Thomas R. Verny and Pamela Weintraub

Book Overview

How does a mother's tone of voice affect her unborn child? What kind of music, if any, should a child be exposed to in the womb? Can parents influence the predispositions of their child to traits like depression, or something as elusive as basic goodness? Thanks to revolutionary discoveries in neuroscience and developmental psychology in recent years, says Dr. Thomas Verny, we now know more about these questions than ever. In Pre-Parenting, Dr. Verny...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671775243
• ISBN13: 9780671775247
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

This book explains how the behavior of parents during pregnancy, childbirth and early childhood can influence the brain and body of the child on becoming a healthy, intelligent and emotionally fit child. Notwithstanding the previous reviews arguing that this work lacks cientific support, it appears to me that more than 95% of Verny's theories stand upon research from prestigious scientists from the four corners of the world. In fact, the book has hundreds of bibliographic references. Verny explains in a clear and concise fashion how prenatal stress, music, domestic violence, desire to give birth or not, conversation, drug and alcohol abuse, among other factors that you can control, can shape the brain of the unborn child. At the end of every chapter you will find a short list of advices and good practices to have an emotionally and mentally healthy child. Well written and a pleasure to read. For spanish speakers, there is a translation from a Catalunian editor, available from spanish internet book stores. The pregnancy and early childhood periods are, according to the author, paramount in the development of the brain. Afterwards the brain structure is almost fixed. The author gives you the advice on how to navigate successfully through these critical periods of the life of your child.

Conscious Early Parenting Could Yet Save Us

Hopefully, this visionary, courageous and helpful book on the art and science of parenting will push us toward the critical mass needed to assure a future for our mad, deteriorating world. This authoritative book should make it clear to parents that the future of civilization is not in the hands of armies, corporations, doctors, television, blockbuster movies, or the World Bank, but in the hands of parents who will conscientiously guide, humanely endow, and proudly send forth healthy and loving children into the world. As long as we fail at this, nothing else will matter or last. Fortunately, this book is easy to read, full of illuminating stories, reveals the latest science, and carries you along with Summaries and Key Parenting Points in every chapter. Be sure to find and memorize the two concluding chapters on how to cultivate basic goodness and how to enhance empathy, compassion, and altruism--the priceless things that cannot be bought at Universities or at Wallmart and just might still move us in the direction of a civilized future!

The Act of Responsibility for Humankind

Read this truly fascinating and inspiring book as an act of responsibility for humankind and as a contribution to making the world a better place."Tomorrow's Baby", the new book by Dr. Thomas Verny, the most eminent expert in the field, inevitably touches the existential core of each human being.However, there are two things you certainly cannot do with this book. Firstly, you cannot read it all at once, and secondly, you cannot read it only once; because, almost every page is a new adventure into the depths of the art and science of responsible parenthood.

Robert OLiver, MD, PhD.

There are many who will find Thomas Verny's newest book, Tomorrow's Baby, beyond compare for bringing an emotionally healthy and mentally sound baby into the world. This is not a book about childbirth; this is a remarkably concise, scientific and prophetic view of how our brains and consciousness have developed and grown from conception through early childhood. Dr. Verny, a psychiatrist, professor and researcher, has accomplished in 263 pages the most up-to-date review of our current knowledge of the pre- and perinatal affects on babies explaining with clarity how we got the way we are. How mothers, fathers and medical interventional events during pregnancy have either beneficial or detrimental developmental affect on the brain. Within each chapter the author fulfills his promise to recommend "the art and science of parenting from conception through infancy". My regret is this book was not available for me when my girls were about to bloom and while I was working to make pregnancy fulfill the hope of my patients. Read Tomorrow's Baby. Within its covers you will find a test with explanations which may assist your understanding of how you became who you are.There are many who will find Thomas Verny's newest book, Tomorrow's Baby, beyond compare for bringing an emotionally healthy and mentally sound baby into the world. This is not a book about childbirth; this is a remarkably concise, scientific and prophetic view of how our brains and consciousness have developed and grown from conception through early childhood. Dr. Verny, a psychiatrist, professor and researcher, has accomplished in 263 pages the most up-to-date review of our current knowledge of the pre- and perinatal affects on babies explaining with clarity how we got the way we are. How mothers, fathers and medical interventional events during pregnancy have either beneficial or detrimental developmental affect on the brain. Within each chapter the author fulfills his promise to recommend "the art and science of parenting from conception through infancy". My regret is this book was not available for me when my girls were about to bloom and while I was working to make pregnancy fulfill the hope of my patients. Read Tomorrow's Baby. Within its covers you will find a test with explanations which may assist your understanding of how you became who you are.

A must read

Finally, a readable book bringing the latest information on the developing brain to our understanding of pre- and perinatal psychology. Dr. Verny's newest book, Tomorrow's Baby, is a must read for those interested in the emotional and mental health of our children. Parents, grandparents, anyone working with children at any stage of development, will benefit from the information in Tomorrow's Baby.