The prenatal prescription

the long version

Most mothers- and fathers-to-be are not aware that the environment the mother creates in her womb will have a permanent impact on their child's lifelong health-including susceptibility to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and mood disorders. Or that their baby passes more developmental milestones before birth than at any time of life. Peter Nathanielsz, M.D., Ph.D., has spent thirty years striving to understand the intriguing mysteries of life in the womb. As one of the principal researchers in the groundbreaking science of the womb, called "prenatal programming," or "the fetal origins of adult disease," he has written The Prenatal Prescription to explain in easy-to-follow language what pregnant mothers can do to optimize the health of their child. The prescription, which should begin before conception, is fairly simple to implement but requires a paradigm shift in the way we think about preparing the womb and taking care of our pregnancies.