Manpreet was engrossed in her favourite web show that didn’t have much of a story but compensated for that with a murder every ten minutes. Each murder was prefixed and suffixed with a large helping of abuses, larger than Lalitha’s serving of Ragi dosas.

‘Don’t watch all theses how’, Lalitha walked in and chided her daughter-in-law.

‘Why, mummy jee? I find them exciting!’

‘The baby in the garbha is listening. He or she is obtaining sankaras.’

‘Is that really true?’ Manpreet rolled her eyes, as another head rolled off its shoulders on the T.V.screen.’

‘Prahlad’s mother listened to the brave stories about Lord Vishnu while he was in her womb. Because of that, the kid became a true devotee of Lord Vishnu despite being born into a Rakshasa family. He supported the ‘good’, renouncing all evil. And that led to the downfall of his demon father’s empire.’

Manpreet wasn’t really convinced. As if someone was reading her mind, she got a message telling her about iMumz’ expert-led session on ‘The Truths Behind Garbha Sanskara’. She attended it and found some valuable insights that she summed up in 10 points.  

1.      Annual Review of Clinical Psychology has a growing body of evidence that a pregnant woman’s psychological health influences that of her unborn child.

2.      Papers published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for PsychologicalScience, have also established that the mother’s mental state is related to several parameters of the baby’s well being.

3.      The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry did a study on 116 women throughout their pregnancies,testing their levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress. Researchers found that the greater the exposure to the mom's cortisol in the womb, the larger was the infants' own cortisol spike in response to a blood draw in the first day of life. 

4.      Vedas mention the mantra “Matrudevo Bhava” meaning the mother is her unborn’s WHOLE world.

5.      All emotions a woman experiences are transmitted to the womb or ‘garbha’. The conscious efforts towards selecting and transmitting positive influences by means of yoga, reading good scriptures, positive thinking, praying, healthy eating and calmness is known as 'Garbha Sanskar'.

6.      As per Charakacharya, the foetal mind is a blank canvas and it readily imbibes stories, songs and music a pregnant woman is exposed. Scientific studies have also proven that the potential for enhancing baby’s creativity and cognition can be activated by creating a good womb environment!  

7.      The vision is not to just give birth to any baby (prajanan) but to give birth to a baby with great qualities (suprajanan), says the Garbh Sanskar philosophy based on which iMumz offers a host of activities for all its mumz.

8.      Prolonged sleep curtailment leads to a general enhancement of markers for inflammatory activity, like the C-reactive protein, an important clinical biomarker of inflammation. Optimum sleep is the body‘s key mechanism of repair and restore. Nidra-related exercises help the mumz get just that.

9.      Following Garbha Sanskara principles leads to formation of high quality Dhatus (tissues) and increases the quantity and quality of Ojus, a vital factor for health and immunity. By following these factors, the Satwa Guna increases which helps one to realize and attain spiritual bliss.

10.  The root cause of all the deeds of a person is his temperament or ‘mana’. It coerces him to do either good or bad deeds. If his or her mind is predominant with Satva, it leads to good activity. Garbha Sanskar activities guide the pregnant ladies to calm their ‘mana’.  

‘Mummy-jee’, Manpreet called out, ‘time for our guided meditation. Would you like the lavender incence sticks or the rose ones?’j

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