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Reply to "ACEs in the Womb?"

I think that it is important to distinguish between ACEs and factors that impact child neuropsychobiological development.  

There are many who consider "ACEs" to be the 10 factors from the original Adverse Childhood Experiences Study of Felitti and Anda published in the 1990's.   

There are others who have added to these 10 factors what they consider to be important for an urban setting and changed 1 of the original adversities from "Has a parent or close caregiver gone to Prison" to "Has a parent or close caregiver gone to Jail." 

However --- There is nothing special about these 10 factors as they relate to child development and subsequent neuropsychobiological pathology and stress reactivity.  They don't tell us anything about prenatal or perinatal stress on the developing infant and child.  The American Academy of Pediatrics original concept was "The First 1000 days" referring to the time period from Conception to Two years of age.   And the developmental factor was termed "Toxic Stress."  

Is parental drug use a toxic stressor to the development of the fetus?  More than likely for most YES because most of these mothers have their own childhood trauma histories (Both the original 10 ACEs and a history of Relational Trauma from their own Attachment Relationship Plus lots of other Epigenetic Factors that are going to affect the fetus.  In fact, these toxic stressors work through epigenetics.  See the work of Steven Soumi as one example).

If you want to get a lot more information about this.... I would look at the work of Allan Schore.  He has a new book called "The Development of the Unconscious Mind."   He also has an amazing book called "Affect Regulation and the Development of Self."

You could probably look him up at UCLA and send him or his secretory an email and get a ton of articles that would give you the information you are looking for.  

I'll put some more things together when I get a chance --- But almost all of the origins of Violence, Empathy/or its lack,  a compassionate society, personality disorders and all the most serious of human psychopathology finds origins in the prenatal period and in infancy.      How a society treats its infants and mothers determines to a great extent how that society functions.  

( And to everyone out there - probably at least 1/3 of the folks on ACEsConnection who are finding that it is really hard to heal your ACEs ---- You might want to read some of Allen Schore's Books and look into structural dissociation, anything you can find about the Development of Self, Dissociation - Which is much more complicated than what your Average MD is taught about; look into Right Brain Development and Emotional Regulation and find out all you can about attachment and Implicit, Non-Cognitive Procedural Memory).   

Last edited by Former Member
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