Gerald McConoughey

This book is profounfly disturbing because it questions deeply held beliefs about child birth and rearing children. Pearce delves into science to find answers to troubling questions as to why American childen fare so poorly compared to those of other countries and cultures. He finds that, contrary to medical science belief, newborns are quite capable of interacting with their mothers. He reports on the fingings of Marcelle Gerber that newborn Ugandan children are wide awake and curious, and advance rapidly compared to American children. He blames the medical profession for taking birth out of nature and putting it in a hospital where doctors routinely cut the umbilical cord much sooner than is good for the child, who depends on it for oxygen until it touches its mother and begins to breathe. This seemlngly small gap in oxygen, he says, can cause lesions in the brain. This along with the failure of doctors and nurses to facilitate bonding between the newborn and its mother, he says, is the cause of many of our children failing to thrive. He believes science has failed to understand the basic workings of nature regarding birthing and bonding with babies. And he further believes this faiure is at the heart of many of our social problems. He is like a voice crying in the wilderness to wake up, and get it right. Then and only then, he says, will we as individuals and as a society be able to realize our full potential.