The Prenatal Shadow

• Explains how babies remember their experiences from the womb and birth as implicit memory, impressions that are held in emotions, images, and the body

• Examines scientific evidence of how preverbal memory works and how prenates are highly responsive to their mother’s perceptions

• Looks at how to become aware of and acknowledge implicit memory from the womb as well as how to heal and prevent birth trauma

As somatic prenatal therapist Cherionna Menzam-Sills, Ph.D., reveals, in a world where it is believed that babies are unable to remember before they can speak, prenatal and birth experiences can easily become unconscious shadow, infiltrating the psyche and affecting personality, relationships, behavior, and perceptions throughout life.

Drawing on scientific evidence of how preverbal memory works, the author shows how babies, even before birth, are exquisitely sensitive with remarkable potential that may be forgotten or eclipsed by traumatic prenatal and perinatal experience. She explains how babies remember the intensely formative experiences from this primal period as implicit memory, impressions that are held in emotions, images, and the body. She looks at how prenates are deeply influenced by their mother’s perception of safety or threat, including during labor and birth, which affects their developing nervous systems.

Examining the healing and integration of the prenatal shadow, the author explores how to acknowledge and prevent birth trauma as well as shares meditative practices for sensing the little one within and offering them what they need.

By acknowledging and integrating the prenatal and perinatal shadow hidden just beyond conscious awareness, we can heal our relationships with ourselves and our loved ones as well as reconnect with our original potential.

"In Jungian psychology the shadow is an unconscious aspect of the personality that does not correspond with the ego ideal, leading the ego to resist and project it. In short, the shadow is the self's emotional blind spot - the part the ego does not want to acknowledge. From this unconscious station, it infiltrates our beliefs, attitudes, behavior, relationships, health and more. Cherionna Menzam-Sills’ well researched and thought-provoking book tells the story of our prenatal and perinatal development from the perspective of how each event may contribute to shadow material and how the reader can benefit from shining light into these unlit places and move towards wholeness in mind and body."

-Thomas R. Verny, MD, DHL (Hon), DPsych, FRCPC, FAPA Associate Editor, Journal of Pre and Peri-natal Psychology and Health (JOPPPAH), Past President APPPAH, Author of The Secret Life of the Unborn Child with John Kelly and Pre-Parenting with Pamela Weintraub, and The Embodied Mind.

"Cherionna’s book is a well-researched antidote to the cultural blind-spot that does not recognise the life-long consequences of our birth and prenatal experience. Grounded in a deep knowledge of how we are shaped by these early experiences, this book will be of benefit to babies, children, and adults. It adds an often-missing piece of the jigsaw to the understanding of trauma that has emerged in recent decades. One of the greatest wounds many of us carry is that we have to hold our birth and womb trauma on our own, usually without even knowing why the trauma is there. In shadow, these traumas have powerful influences on our behaviours and perceptions. ‘Birth as Shadow’ shines a light on what has been hidden for far too long. This is knowledge that we need to disseminate if we are going to live as more conscious beings."

-Matthew Appleton, Director, Conscious Embodiment Trainings. Author of Transitions to Wholeness. Integrating Prenatal, Transpersonal and Somatic Psychology

"Cherionna tenderly holds us in a field of both shadow and light. Gently guiding the reader to pay attention to the subtle implicit memories pulsing within flesh and bone she speaks directly to our embryos' fluid journey into being. This is an essential book for everyone to read. Rooted in years of research, story, and observation The Prenatal Shadow not only affirms our ability to feel into our innate wisdom and be met with awareness and compassion, but also deftly illuminates the profound harm caused by our entrenched cultural refusal to acknowledge that living organisms possess direct perception and conscious knowledge."

-Liz Koch Stalking Wild Psoas: Embodying Your Core Intelligence

"Cherionna Menzam-Sills has written a thorough, gentle, necessary text about prenatal and perinatal somatics that presents the many difficult layers of experience for humans starting preconception. She shines the light on elements often overlooked in modern maternity care, and supports the reader with explanations and reflections about their prenatal and birth journey for their awareness and growth. The Prenatal Shadow is a welcome contribution to the field of birth psychology and a must-have for healing enthusiasts."

-Kate White, MA, BCBMT, RCST©, CEIM, SEP, PPNE, PLC, Founder and Director, Center for Prenatal and Perinatal Programs, the Prenatal and Perinatal Somatics Institute, Founding Director of Education, Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health

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