"Smelly Worthless Hippy Fathers Who Don't Know How to Use Condoms"

[Dildo Argentino]

I disagree. I did ask the obstetrical researcher I know (in fact, it was the first thing I did), and they said they know very little about the long-term psychological effect (if any, of course) of parental sex and maternal orgasm on the fetus, or more accurately the person that that fetus grows into. There's research, sure, about the risk that parental sex poses to the pregnancy, but that is a different matter. I also looked at scientific papers: a few old ones (30-years-old, that is), but nothing recent.

Well, I asked a guy I know, and he says you're an idiot.

Funny, but the exact same thing happened to me!

[Dildo Argentino]

The other day, I was wondering whether fetuses cry, and whether they vomit. I asked google and it turns out they do cry, this has been ascertained by 3d scanning, but the vomiting thing was more difficult, and then I stumbled into this:

http://myotherhalf.blog.com/2009/10/06/fetal-vomiting-flu-vaccines/

This guy is just amazingly bizarre. And it seems pretty plain to me that he is wrong. But he could be onto something.

It looks about as valid as homeopathy.

Nice of you to bring that in.

On the other hand: effect of parents having sex on the fetus? Given that we no longer think of a newborn baby as essentially a meat doll awaiting occupation by a soul a couple-few months later? And that these days it is no longer considered outrageous to think that prenatal experiences may have character-forming effects?

By the way, sorry to be condescending yet again, but you asked for it.

This isn't some unexplored territory that nobody knows about. The effects of maternal coitus and orgasm on the fetus are fairly well-studied and understood. Why don't you ask an obstetrical researcher or look up scholarly articles, instead of making shit up on your own or relying on random whackjobs from the internet to give you ideas? FFS.

I disagree. I did ask the obstetrical researcher I know (in fact, it was the first thing I did), and they said they know very little about the long-term psychological effect (if any, of course) of parental sex and maternal orgasm on the fetus, or more accurately the person that that fetus grows into. There's research, sure, about the risk that parental sex poses to the pregnancy, but that is a different matter. I also looked at scientific papers: a few old ones (30-years-old, that is), but nothing recent.

Well, I for one am INTERESTED in holist's "science".

Tell me, if a pregnant woman is startled by a cat, will the baby have a cat-shaped birthmark? 

It may do, but it won't be because of its mother being startled by a cat.

[Dildo Argentino]

For anyone who is actually interested in a science way and not a woo-woo way, there has been quite a lot of research in the last ten years into how maternal experiences, both positive and negative, affect the development of the fetus in-utero. There is a team up at OHSU who has been doing quite a lot of work with this (Carr-Morse may ring a bell) mostly focused on the effects of maternal stress.

Now, let's talk about the reason there hasn't been much research into the effects of sex on the fetus since the mechanisms at play were established in studies in the late 1980's and early 90's; there isn't anything new, at this point, to look at there. We know that the fetus is insulated from the outside world by the amniotic sac, and that largely what it experiences physically is what the mother experiences; in other words, if she experiences pleasure, the fetus also receives the wave of pleasure hormones, and if she experiences stress, fear, or pain, the fetus experiences the hormones related to stress, fear, and pain.

Based on what we actually know about fetal development, what's important is not how the fetus' direct "experience" shapes its development (unless something very unusual happens in which it loses the buffering effect of the maternal womb), but how the mother's experience shapes the fetal experience. In other words, if the mother is happy, nurtured, and relaxed, the fetus will receive the benefits of her happy, nurtured, and relaxed chemical state... including the happy, nurtured, and relaxed state that comes from regular sex within the context of a stable and healthy relationship. And indeed, we find that the children of women who are in happy, nurturing, stable relationships (and who do not have other undue stressors such as poor health or poverty) tend to be larger, healthier, and happier children. Regular exposure to her partner's semen also results in a healthier pregnancy that is more likely to be carried to term: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/homo-consumericus/201107/the-protective-health-benefits-sperm-pregnant-women.

None of this is breaking news. It isn't some esoteric, unstudied area of human development. Sure, there's more to find out, which is why, y'know, this exists: http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/research/centers-institutes/onprc/scientific-discovery/research-divisions/reproductive-sciences.cfm. This is all part of a large and established body of knowledge around sex, partnership, pregnancy, and child outcomes.

Thanks for that. I didn't however, say it was some esoteric, unstudied area: I said I wanted to find out whether fetuses vomit, and in the process, came across the guy I, in my initial post, described as bizarre and certainly wrong, but possibly engaged with something interesting. But I am sorry.

[Dildo Argentino]

Oh, and as for the uterine contractions during orgasm, as any basic pregnancy book will tell you, the uterus contracts regularly and usually much more strongly on a regular basis throughout the last half of pregnancy as it prepares its musculature for the rigors of childbirth. Late in the pregnancy they increase in intensity. They're called Braxton-Hicks contractions.

Thanks for that as well, I'll look into it tomorrow. Been busy.

[LMNO]

I wanted to find out whether fetuses vomit,

What could they possibly vomit, if they are being nourished through the umbilical cord?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I wanted to find out whether fetuses vomit,

What could they possibly vomit, if they are being nourished through the umbilical cord?

More to the point, why would that information be required in the first fucking place?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I wanted to find out whether fetuses vomit,

What could they possibly vomit, if they are being nourished through the umbilical cord?

More to the point, why would that information be required in the first fucking place?

Because whackjob on the internet.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I wanted to find out whether fetuses vomit,

What could they possibly vomit, if they are being nourished through the umbilical cord?

More to the point, why would that information be required in the first fucking place?

Because whackjob on the internet.

What the hell was I thinking?

[Dildo Argentino]

I wanted to find out whether fetuses vomit,

What could they possibly vomit, if they are being nourished through the umbilical cord?

Amniotic fluid, which they swallow first. This, apparently, has now been captured decisively on 3D ultrasound, and goes on quite a lot.

http://www.ajronline.org/doi/abs/10.2214/AJR.04.1114

[The Good Reverend Roger]

So what?

[Dildo Argentino]

I wanted to find out whether fetuses vomit,

What could they possibly vomit, if they are being nourished through the umbilical cord?

More to the point, why would that information be required in the first fucking place?

Well I find it unusually difficult to throw up. I will suffer for hours instead of giving up the stuff that causes the suffering. So I was wondering about why that could be and how the ability to vomit forms in the first place.

[LMNO]

Maybe because you're an insufferable control freak with serious childhood trauma?

[Dildo Argentino]

Maybe because you're an insufferable control freak with serious childhood trauma?

Yes, could be. I don't think I'm a control freak, insufferability is in the eye of the insufferer, but the childhood trauma, while partly quite trivial (mum swallowing incorrect baby-feeding advice from a well-meaning but underinformed pediatrician hook line and sinker), turns out to have been somewhat serious nevertheless.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Maybe because you're an insufferable control freak with serious childhood trauma?

Yes, could be. I don't think I'm a control freak, insufferability is in the eye of the insufferer, but the childhood trauma, while partly quite trivial (mum swallowing incorrect baby-feeding advice from a well-meaning but underinformed pediatrician hook line and sinker), turns out to have been somewhat serious nevertheless.

UNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I wanted to find out whether fetuses vomit,

What could they possibly vomit, if they are being nourished through the umbilical cord?

More to the point, why would that information be required in the first fucking place?

Because whackjob on the internet.

What the hell was I thinking?

I wonder if Holist is hip to the worldly philosophies of Time Cube Guy?