Pnyin - How to bear a wise emperor?

CITYLIFE / Hip & New






How to bear a wise emperor?

(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-05-21 09:50


For thousands of years, mothers have tried to influence the intelligence
and aptitudes of their unborn children by being careful about the sights
and sounds around them. Today prenatal education is big business-and
controversial.

Prenatal education or teaching the fetus, which is very popular in the
West, has its counterpart in ancient Chinese texts. For example, the
"Historical Records" recounts that Emperor Wen of the Western Zhou
Dynasty (c.11th century-770BC) was a wise king because his mother avoided
violent scenes and loud sounds and curses during her pregnancy.

And Jia Yi, a renowned poet, essay writer and politician in the Han
Dynasty (206BC-220AD), devoted an entire chapter to prenatal education in
his political strategy text "New Recommendations." Similar to "Historical
Records," Jia advised a woman how to behave during pregnancy in order to
give birth to a wise emperor.

Choose a graceful woman from a good family, he advised. The woman should
walk slowly and gracefully, and not speak too loudly.

Modern prenatal education theory says that prenatal education is not
really "education" since that would require the subject to accept, learn
and respond.

The unborn are incapable of doing so. Rather, this is a way to stimulate
and help the babies' mental development and aptitude from outside the
womb.

Making sounds for the fetus is popular, adopted by many pregnant women
and used as selling point by many baby-related products.

Many are 60-beat-per minute tapes, like the human heart, a soothing
rhythm. Some women talk to their babies, read to them and play music for
them.

But this "education" is controversial, with pros and cons among both
pregnant women and doctors.

No one says that appropriately administered and soothing sounds are not
good. The question is, does it make for smarter babies?

Studies show that unborn infants start to develop their senses, such as
sight, hearing and smell, during the latter half of the pregnancy.

They react to temperature at four to five months, develop smell at about
six months, and sight at about seven months.

But there is no scientific evidence to demonstrate that prenatal
education can really make children smarter - this is why local doctors
interviewed declined to give opinions.

Supporters hope that good prenatal education will lead to having
healthier and more intelligent babies, eager learners. Opponents,
however, consider it nonsense and say some can methods even be harmful to
unborn babies.


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