shielded during
pregnancy from any experience involving shock or fright, since these
exert a harmful effect on the developing embryo, and may in extreme
cases result in abortion, or in physical deformity or mental weakness
in the child. Instances of this ill-effect are comparatively common,
and the link between cause and effect is often unmistakable. There is
no need to point out that these cases are nothing more than spontaneous
autosuggestions operating in the maternal Unconscious; since during
pregnancy the mother moulds her little one not only by the food she
eats but also by the thoughts she thinks. The heightened emotionality
characteristic of this state bespeaks an increased tendency to
outcropping, and so an increased suggestibility. Thus spontaneous
autosuggestions are far more potent than in the normal course of life.
But, happily, induced autosuggestions are aided by the same conditions,
so that the mother awake to her powers and duties can do as much good
as the ignorant may do harm.

Without going into debatable questions, such as the possibility of
predetermining the sex of the child to be born, one can find many
helpful ways of aiding and benefiting the growing life by
autosuggestive means. The mother should avoid with more than ordinary
care all subjects, whether in reading or conversation, which bear on
evil in any form, and she should seek whatever uplifts the mind and
furnishes it with beautiful and joyous thought. But the technical
methods of autosuggestion can also be brought into action.

The mother should suggest to herself that her organism is furnishing
the growing life with all it needs, and that the child will be strong
and healthy in mind, in body, and in character.

These suggestions should be in general terms bearing on qualities of
undoubted good, for obviously it is not desirable to define an
independent life too narrowly. They need consist only of a few
sentences, and should be formulated night and morning immediately
before or after the general formula. Furthermore, when the mother's
thoughts during the day stray to the subject of her child, she can take
this opportunity to repeat the whole or some part of the particular
suggestion she has chosen. These few simple measures will amply
suffice. Any undue tendency of the mind to dwell on the thought of the
child, even in the form of good suggestions, should not be encouraged.
A normal mental life is in itself the best of cond