We tend to think of pregnancy as a nine month grace period before parenting really begins. That's not it at all. I call pregnancy, nature's secret head start program because nature set it up this way brilliantly. It's natures plan to create organisms who are as well-suited to their present environment as possible. What better way to do that then for that developing baby's brain to be responding to what is going on in real time during mom's pregnancy. Her experience of life. Her nutrition and her behavior, and a lot of it is her emotions; they become downloaded as a biochemical lessons to baby about what kind of world is out there. Is it a world that is kind and loving and I can flourish to my fullest extent? That's a different brain that wires up. If the mom is under constant stress, then the baby's brain is going to be wired to survive in a different environment.