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The conception of a maternal impression rests on the belief that a powerful mental (or sometimes physical) influence working on the mother's mind may produce an impression, either general or definite, on the child she is carrying. The child might be said to be "marked" as a result.


Medicine

Maternal impression, according to a long-discredited
medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...
theory, was a phenomenon that explained the existence of
birth defect A birth defect, also known as a congenital disorder, is an abnormal condition that is present at birth regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities ca ...
s and congenital disorders. The theory stated that an
emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definitio ...
al
stimulus A stimulus is something that causes a physiological response. It may refer to: *Stimulation **Stimulus (physiology), something external that influences an activity **Stimulus (psychology), a concept in behaviorism and perception *Stimulus (economi ...
experienced by a
pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ca ...
woman could influence the development of the
fetus A fetus or foetus (; plural fetuses, feti, foetuses, or foeti) is the unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Following embryonic development the fetal stage of development takes place. In human prenatal development, fetal dev ...
. For example, it was sometimes supposed that the mother of the
Elephant Man Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890), often erroneously called John Merrick, was an English man known for having severe deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "the Elephant Man" and then wen ...
was frightened by an
elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantida ...
during her pregnancy, thus "imprinting" the memory of the elephant onto the gestating fetus. Mental problems, such as
schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...
and depression, were believed to be a manifestation of similar disordered feelings in the mother. For instance, a pregnant woman who experienced great
sadness Sadness is an emotional pain associated with, or characterized by, feelings of disadvantage, loss, despair, grief, helplessness, disappointment and sorrow. An individual experiencing sadness may become quiet or lethargic, and withdraw them ...
might imprint depressive tendencies onto the fetus in her womb. The theory of maternal impression was largely abandoned by the 20th century, with the development of modern genetic theory.


Folklore

In
folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...
, maternal imprinting, or Versehen (a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
noun meaning "inadvertance" or as a verb "to provide") as it is usually called, is the belief that a sudden fear of some object or animal in a pregnant woman can cause her child to bear the mark of it.
Oswald Spengler Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (; 29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German historian and philosopher of history whose interests included mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best k ...
understood maternal imprinting to be a folkloric understanding of what he called "blood feeling" or the formation of a group aesthetic of a bodily ideal:
What is called the ''Versehen'' of a pregnant woman is only a particular and not very important instance of the workings of a very deep and powerful formative principle inherent in all that is of the race side. It is a matter of common observation that elderly married people become strangely like one another, although probably Science with its measuring instruments would "prove" the exact opposite. It is impossible to exaggerate the formative power of this living pulse, this strong inward feeling for the perfection of one's own type. The feeling for race-beauty—so opposite to the conscious taste of ripe urbans for intellectual-individual traits of beauty—is immensely strong in primitive men, and for that very reason never emerges into their consciousness. But such a feeling is race-forming. It undoubtedly molded the warrior- and hero-type of a nomad tribe more and definitely on ''one bodily ideal'', so that it would have been quite unambiguous to speak of the race-figure of Romans or Ostrogoths.
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
also comments at length about the phenomenon of ''postpartum'' maternal impression in bears, i.e., the folk belief that newborn bears must be licked and molded into bear-shape by their mothers.Pliny Natural History VIII:126


See also

* Lihi * Cortisol#Effects during pregnancy *
Epigenetics In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are ...
* Fetal Origins Hypothesis * Fetal origins of adult disease *
Lamarckism Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...
*
Mary Toft Mary Toft (née Denyer; c. 1701–1763), also spelled Tofts, was an English woman from Godalming, Surrey, who in 1726 became the subject of considerable controversy when she tricked doctors into believing that she had given birth to rabbits. I ...
*
Mooncalf A mooncalf (or moon-calf) is a monstrous birth, the abortive fetus of a cow or other farm animal. The term was occasionally applied to an abortive human fetus. The term derives from the once widespread superstition, present in many European ...
*
Pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
* Sooterkin


References


Bibliography

* Wendy Doniger and Gregory Spinner. "Misconceptions: Parental Imprinting" in "Science in Culture" edited by Peter Louis Galison, Stephen Richards Graubard, Everett Mendelsohn, Transaction Publishers, 2001 * Lily Weiser-Aall. "Svangerskap og Fodsel i Nyere Norsk Tradisjon" in Folklore, Vol. 82, No. 4 (Winter, 1971), pp. 339–40 * Patricia R. Stokes. "Pathology, Danger, and Power: Women's and Physicians' Views of Pregnancy and Childbirth in Weimar Germany" in Social History of Medicine 2000 Vol. 13 (#3) * Katharine Park. “Impressed Images: Reproducing Wonders,” in Caroline A. Jones and Peter Galison, eds., Picturing Science, Producing Art, New York: Routledge, 1998, 254–71. * Hiro Hirai. "Imagination, Maternal Desire and Embryology in Thomas Fienus," in G. Manning and C. Klestinec, eds., Professors, Physicians and Practices in the History of Medicine, Cham: Springer, 2017, 211–225. {{Superstitions Obsolete medical theories Obsolete biology theories Superstitions Folklore