A new world!
At every stage of her development, Lilli's pre-existing conditions shaped the development of the rest of her brain. She sent neurohormones and peripheral nerve signals from her brain that formed her body and organs. This is why her body exactly matches her brain, under whose influence it developed. The developing sensory organs also fed a lot of information back to her brain. So when she was born, her brain knew exactly how her organs worked, what her blood pressure was, how her muscles worked together and how her arms and legs were controlled.
This gave her time to gradually learn what the outside world had in store for her and to recognize the feelings, tastes, smells and sounds that came through her mother.
Erik's mother smoked!
Smoked a lot, and the strong kind. And so Erik was already addicted to nicotine, even though he hadn't even been born yet. Like his mother, he also became restless if she couldn't smoke for a long time. At least she gave up wine and other alcoholic drinks, which she had always enjoyed. Instead, she now resorted to sweet soft drinks. And she ate food very often during the day, which her body needed far too much energy to process.
She needed that to feel happy. Soft drink companies and manufacturers of ready-made products know exactly how to make people feel happy. How much fat, sugar and salt their products need to contain so that people no longer feel whether they are full or hungry. The brain can be fooled by the right formula, creating a “happiness point”. Anyone who has ever eaten potato chips, cornflakes or chocolate slices will be familiar with this and is manifested in the slogan with which a confectionery manufacturer once advertised its products: “If only I could stop...”. With this slogan, the manufacturer openly stated where he wanted to take us with his mixture of fat and sugar: to unrestrained consumption, which narcotizes the hunger-satiety mechanism but does not bring satisfaction. The right combination of fat and sugar or fat and salt causes a short circuit in the brain. If this happens long enough, the brain is so confused that it can no longer feel normally without this cocktail.
This happened not only in Erik's mother's brain, but also in that of the still unborn boy: Erik was not only already addicted to nicotine - his hunger-satiety mechanism was also already distorted in the womb. Erik was not as lucky as Lilli.
Oxytocin as a trailblazer
Both unborn babies were just developing their sense of balance and sense of touch. These senses already showed us a great deal about the world in which the pregnant mother lived. Lilli already knew that her dogs barked when the doorbell rang, and she already knew the voice of another child who lives with mom and dad. Because Lilli has a brother. His name is Felix and he is two years older than Lilli.
Although everything was 40 decibels quieter in her mother's womb than out in the world, Lilli could already hear everything. And she already knew a lot about the world into which she would be born. Lilli could also feel when her mother pressed her hand against her head or when Felix lightly tapped her mother's tummy. Lilli even pressed her foot against her mother's tummy and was happy when her brother pressed back. That was very exciting. Lilli learned a lot about the world that surrounded her mother and her brain was motivated because it was constantly perceiving new stimuli.
But it was slowly getting uncomfortable in the cramped cave. She already had very little space. Her mother's blood no longer provided her with enough nourishment, and her brain realized that she was already lacking important vital substances. It sent out messengers to signal to the uterus that it was time. Time to bring Lilli into the world.
The signal was sent by oxytocin. It is the power hormone among the messengers that releases all the powerful instincts, the emotional and physical forces that mother, father, child and families need to endure the pain of childbirth, then quickly forget it again and thus develop the blissful feelings of parenthood and family.
Messenger substances control all our instincts and natural life processes. Messenger substances set feelings, forces and biological mechanisms in motion that are necessary to allow and make possible natural processes and events such as sexuality-conception-pregnancy-birth-breastfeeding in the first place.
Lilli's father also got fatter during her pregnancy. All his friends laughed because he and his pregnant wife had already grown fat together with their son. This was a good sign and great for the children because it indicated that both parents were good nurturers. Such parents are more likely to raise their children together and give them more security in life.
Oxytocin gives the uterine muscles the command to push the unborn child out. Lilli's mother went into labor. That was quite a struggle! It became terribly tight, Lilli was pushed into an ever-narrowing canal and felt like she was stuck - somehow nothing could go any further. Lilli's mother needed a caesarean section to bring Lilli into the world. Lilli heard strange noises, the clinking of medical instruments, suddenly strange hands grabbed her...
Erik's mom didn't need a caesarean section. He fought his way through the birth canal and slipped through his mother's vagina, where he was able to get to know lots of bacteria that will help him to keep his immune system fit in the first few years of his life.
With Lilli, this is a bit of a bummer as she has to laboriously collect the bacteria in the first few years of her life with all the possible diseases she can catch. Lilli obviously doesn't know that much about the world yet. There is a lot of noise around her and she is terrified. Suddenly she is so heavy, the hands holding her are pulling and she feels like her body is crushing her. It is gravity that catches her so unawares. In the womb it was so soft, so light, she floated, almost weightless. All that is gone. The world is torn into thousands of individual pieces, everything is buzzing around her, and it is garish and full of noise. She is terribly cold and thinks she is suffocating. She roars out with all her might, setting her lungs in motion. She gasps and breathes and gasps and breathes. Hands pick her up, she flies through the air and now she sees her mother.
From a distance of 20 centimetres, she gets her first visual impressions of her. She sees her mother for the first time and recognizes her immediately. She pulls Lilli to her left side, Lilli hears the heartbeat again that is so familiar to her, and she lies on her mother's skin. She is still covered in smears and her mother is a little horrified. But the messengers in mom's brain are already on their way and help mom to soon find Lilli comfortable.
Her mother gets tired and Lilli begins to suckle at her breast. Lilli knows her smell, she knows her heart, she feels her skin. Lilli's heart softens and she feels: “It's all good again! Now everything is good again!" From now on, Lilli's brain can develop and learn more and more that it is safe.