Dr. Gabor Maté
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Because the parents' stresses affect the physiology of the child.
Oh, man.
My cortisol must have been off the charts.
All of us children, yeah.
It probably would have been.
And so in this society, and this is not the fault of individual parents.
Right.
It begins in the uterus, actually.
Already stresses on the pregnant woman will affect the physiology of the child.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
No.
In this society, so many pregnant women are so stressed.
In the States, particularly.
I mean, the emotional stress of having to... The nervous system stress.
...perform on the job or being in a difficult relationship.
In one of the chapters in the book I talk about, it begins with the diary of my wife who was writing it when she was pregnant with one of our children about how unhappy she was.
And she's talking to the infant saying, please don't take this stress personally.
And she wrote that.