Gestation isn’t destiny, but a person’s physical and emotional future do start to form before birth. In her up-close look at the first nine months, Paul deftly intersperses a scientific tour of how fetal environments influence later health and well-being with personal glimpses of her second pregnancy.
A picture emerges of scientists seeking prenatal insights that have the potential to improve babies’ lives — but also to freak out expectant parents. In that vein, Paul, a journalist, candidly describes her own science-fueled fears that eating raw fish and getting too stressed during pregnancy will harm her unborn child.
Early in Paul’s pregnancy, she talks to David Barker, a physician who about 20 years ago noted a link between low birth weight and heart disease in adults. Studies now suggest that mothers who eat poorly give birth to small babies with altered energy requirements, setting these infants up for later heart disease.
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