Preconception, Prenatal, & Early Parenting Specialist

Ann Diamond Weinstein’s knowledge, research and experience have provided her with a profound understanding of the importance of the preconception and prenatal environment—both inside and outside of women’s wombs—and the way it shapes children’s development in the prenatal period and over their lifespan.

Book

My recent book, Prenatal Development and Parents’ Lived Experiences: How Early Events Shape Our Psychophysiology and Relationships, offers knowledge, research and theory about the earliest developmental period—from conception to birth, which holds even greater consequences for the health and development of the human organism than was previously understood. Theory and research in multiple disciplines provide the foundation for the exploration of how experiences during conception and time in the womb; during and after birth; and experiences with caregivers and the family system in the early postnatal period impact an individual physically, cognitively, emotionally and socially over their life span.

Knowledge drawn from numerous fields highlights the opportunity for parents-to-be and the practitioners who care for them to intentionally support the cultivation of nurturing internal and external environments during the preconception, prenatal and early parenting periods. Theory and research from the fields of psychology, medicine, psychophysiology, epigenetics, and traumatology among others, suggest that doing so will support lifelong multidimensional aspects of healthy development in children and adults and may also benefit future generations.