As has recently been established environmentally-directed maternal influences may impact more than just the subsequent generation. An observation referred to as the grandmother effect reveals Dutch women who were on starvation diets during the famine of World War II, produced smaller than normal babies. Interestingly, this pattern of stunted growth continued into the next generation. The metabolic investment required to support protection responses comes at the cost of compromising growth. Selection of growth and protection behaviors is a dynamical process which is actively mediated by the organism in response to perceived environmental signals.
Signals engendering threats of survival, that is fear, shunt growth mechanisms.
Signals relaying the existence of supportive environments, those emphasizing love, encourage the selection of growth-related genetic programs. Since the offspring will spend their lives in the same or essentially the same environment as they are born in, developmental programming of the neonate by the mother is of adaptive value in species survival. This is Nature s equivalent of a head start program. As we stand on the door step of the new millennium, we are releasing limiting ideas and replacing them with knowledge that will facilitate the survival of the human race. Inc. All rights reserved.