Haptonomy

[Darthwing Teorist]

http://www.haptonomy.org/va/generalPubl ... onomy.html

I did this last evening with my gf. It was awesome! We got the baby moving in the tummy and responding to our presence. It is really worth trying if you are waiting a baby. It gets the father involved in the process and builds the confidence of the mother and the baby. Apparently, it also helps bear the pains of giving birth better as well as help direct the baby in a good position for the delivery.

[Steve James]

I'm afraid to look and see what it is exactly; but, I remember that we'd used to play with the babies before they were born all the time. We also used to put the radio on my wife's belly -- no, not rap, Earth, Wind and Fire and Stevie Wonder. Maybe some Rolling Stones.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

That's totally cool.

[Darthwing Teorist]

Yeah, it is awesome! I played a bit with the baby last night. She (she's a girl) responded by moving and doing small movements that I felt as hits on the belly.

I like to think that she practices martial arts in the tummy.

[Michael]

Cool beans! Don't forget to read her Shakespeare and play some Mahler so she grows up all haute cultured and stuff. You also get a 10% discount on finishing school later on.

[Steve James]

Fwiw, my daughter, the one whom we played the music on, is a great singer. The only thing is that she prefers country western

[meeks]

The only thing is that she prefers country western

You have my condolences....

I picked a couple of key phrases (eg: hello baby) that I would use repeatedly to our unborn (daughter) and would use a specific melody to it every time. then when she was born, I would use that to try and soothe her with the same words and melody that she would have heard before, hoping to ease the transition into the new environment. seemed to actually work over the first 6 weeks, but it was more the specific melody than the words.

[Darthwing Teorist]

Yeah, I will try the music thing too, like James and Meeks suggested. Did you put the stereo near your wive's tummies or did you simply play the music in the room?

[Darth Rock&Roll]

May I suggest:

Beethoven, Mozart, Paganini and of course, whale song.

Recordings of Whale song is said to be very soothing to babies in the womb.

[bigphatwong]

whale song

[meeks]

I think scientists that determine babies like Mozart did that because they played mozart to them.

people adapt. babies adapt. I'm not saying play death metal against her womb. I'm saying pretty much any soft, easy music will work. My wife sometimes gets on my case if I'm playing CCR in the van with the baby in the seat behind me... but I like CCR simply because my dad listened to it while I was a kid too and i grew up with it. I figure you can play just about anything and the kid will get used to it. later they will enjoy it when they get the chance. give them something they can become familiar with - that's probably the key right there. when they 'get on the outside' they'll feel more comfortable with it because they heard it 'on the inside'.

no major guitar freakouts obviously. something that wouldn't 'startle' the baby inside. but i bet you can probably play anything with decent/creative musical scales (remember, unborn babies don't have language skills so lyrics are a moot point) and the kid will pay attention to it.

my wife played some nasty-assed chinese opera that sounded like a cat fight played slowly (in my opinion) and claimed it was determined that this would make the kid smarter. it's no different than claiming mozart or bach will do that. both were completely different ends of the sound/music style spectrum and I wouldn't bother to spend time listening to either (although there are a few songs by mozart and a few others I can't remember their names that I like). This music my wife wouldn't normally listen to either, once the baby's born, so I figure that was a futile endeavor.

a buddy of mine got me a cd of metallica songs played as children's music - sounds amazing. and my chinese wife who likes Andy Lau and Britney Spears likes it more than I do (because I stopped listening to Metallica when they started suing their own fans). You should hear 'sanitarium' played on a children's xylophone....

[Steve James]

I would say play what you like. But, if you like Courtney Love or Pearl Jam.... be prepared. I agree with Meeks about soothing music --though that means what's soothing to you. There'll be plenty of time later to expand the baby's taste. Yeah, "classical" music is really good.

Oh, yeah, we used to put the boombox on the mom's belly. But, we'd play music at home all the time. Singing and talking work too. Sometimes you can tell that the baby is listening. Now, if you hear some singing coming out from the depths, please let us know.

[Darthwing Teorist]

Thanks guys!

Daddy is listening to all kinds of music, from heavy metal to hip hop to pop to world beats to classical music. I will play all that stuff when she's born. Right now, we have a classical music CD for babies that my gf is listening to. I will also make her a Vivaldi fan.

What I was interested in, was how you played the music when the baby was unborn: normally or against the belly. Thanks again for the input. (Maybe I should play her Kung Fu movie soundtracks, so I will have someone to watch these movies with me, since the gf is not a fan at all of KF flicks).

[Darthwing Teorist]

Last night I did two drills in the haptonomy class and I think that they may be interesting to be shared. I am sure that similar drills exist in other disciplines.


Note that haptonomy is mainly based on emotional connection between people and one of the main means to achieve this is feeling (feeling the other person, feeling the environment). A related notion is to go beyond the rational mind, in order to "feel", a similar notion to Zen or martial arts.


EXERCISE 1 - Improving posture and relaxation in a chair:
- Sit straight in a chair, with the spine against the back of the chair.
- Feel the back of the chair.
- Once you are comfortable doing that, feel the depth of the back of the chair.
- Again, once you are comfortable doing that, feel the space up the wall behind.
- Now repeat this process by feeling the chair underneath.
- Feel the depth of the chair.
- Feel the space to the ground.

The idea, is the by feeling, the body relaxes. The further you feel, the more relaxed your body will become and the larger the surface that is in contact with the back of the chair or the chair itself. This modifies your posture and alignment, for example, to feel the back of the chair, your lower back has to be straight and full.

Depending on how far you are from an ideal posture, you don't have to feel too far from your body.


EXERCISE 2 - Improving posture standing up:
- Feel the contact that the feet make with the shoes.
- Feel the depth of the shoe sole.
- Feel the ground.
- Feel deeper under ground.

This will make the feet relax, and change their position to have a larger contact surface. This in turn will affect the pelvis, bringing it forward which of course will affect the alignment of the spine.

[shawnsegler]

Teo, I'm disgusted with you. Programming that poor little ones mind before it can even question you back...controlled like some innocent little puppet dancing on your strings.

What happens after it's born? A hat a vest, some cymbals and an accordion...then little Teo does all the work and you balance drunkenly against the corner of a building playing your accordion and paying for your gin with his sad childish antics.

SHAME!!!

S