WHAT: In Utero
WHEN: Feb 19, 2016
WHERE: Main Theater
COST:
DESCRIPTION:
FOR MORE INFO, SEE: www.inuterofilm.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/inuterofilm
“IN UTERO unveils a fundamental fact that our global culture continues to ignore: the prenatal period is a critical time of development in the formation of a human being’s self. Stress to the fetus can have major implications in how that self grows. The evidence presented, which included MRI techniques showing the fetus under stress, is compelling and makes it clear that the prenatal period of life deserves our utmost attention as we endeavor to nurture the development of all human beings.” – Anna Hennessey, Visualizing Birth
Through enlightening and oftentimes poignant interviews with experts and pioneers, IN UTERO paints a complex tapestry of the human experience from conception to birth. Tapping into cultural myths, popular movies, and technological trends, the film demonstrates how our experiences in utero preoccupy us throughout our lives.
Experts in the fast-growing field of epigenetics explain that we are not only our genes but a product of our environment as well, a proven fact that changes our perception of stress and exposures to the environment during pregnancy. The film looks at how these environmental effects are passed down through the generations through our genes, making it scientifically plausible that a traumatic event that affected your grandma could leave a mark on your genes.
As if this weren’t eye-opening enough, the film reveals through extensive interviews with psychologists, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts that similar theories of prenatal life have been in play as early as the 1900’s, and have gained traction ever since. In that sense, the hard sciences are only just beginning to catch up with what others have been saying for decades.
Now, experts in all fields have begun to see the link between the state of the world and prenatal life. Open up the news any day and you’ll see a new article about the prenatal period. In just the last few years, enormous strides have been made in understanding the biological, psychological and sociological impact of our time in the womb. Scientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Research discovered that disorders such as autism and schizophrenia begin before birth. In Michigan, researchers have developed MRI technology that is able to capture incredible images of a developing fetus’s brain, allowing them to study how areas of the brain begin to link up and coordinate activity. Meanwhile, other scientists and psychologists are finding that prolonged stress such as poverty, and traumatic events such as Ferguson and 9/11 impact a developing fetus on a genetic level. Others have found that depressed or stressed mothers have higher levels of the hormone cortisol, which negatively affects the fetus by constricting blood flow to the placenta. The list goes on. All of this research urges us to think about who we are and how the foundations of who we’ve become all began long before we were even born, and ultimately, how we can set our children up for better lives in the generations to come.
It’s clear that IN UTERO is an extremely timely and important film. Through interviews with midwives and prenatal psychologists, IN UTERO brings into focus a new field devoted to prenatal life. Time will tell how those whose lives are “known” from the beginning will lead us into the future.
