12.       IT IS A SPHERE OF INFLUENCE.

The Hebrew word 'rechem' for womb is 'matrix' which means 'a place within which something originates or develops.'

Exodus 20:5 says, "I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." Iniquity is willfully following our own way rather than God's. Rebellion in the parents can also be passed on to the children. Psalm 58:3 says, "The godless are perverse from the womb." Also read Isaiah 48:8.

Recent studies clearly show that an unborn baby is affected deeply by the attitudes of the mother. If the mother rejects the child in her womb, her child will suffer from this rejection at some stage in his/her life. If the mother is full of fear, that fear will enter her unborn child.

If the father who gave the seed of life or the mother is willful, that iniquity will touch the unborn baby. Tempers, unforgiveness and bitterness that are not dealt with will be passed on to future generations.

The following are a few examples of how the mother’s attitude to her baby in the womb had a detrimental affect upon the baby. I know these women personally. A mother had a horrific birth experience at her second birth. It put such fear into her that when she was pregnant with her third child she was paranoid about giving birth again and was full of fears. Somehow these fears entered into this child, for this baby who is now grown, is still struggling with fears today and they have plagued her all her life.

A backslidden girl fell pregnant. She wanted this child to grow up with a mother and a father and so decided that she would give this baby to a loving family. She was naturally a very loving person, but in order to not get too attached to her baby as she planned to give it away, she thought of it ‘as nothing’ or as a ‘bit of stone.’

However, at the very end of her pregnancy she met the father of the child again and at the last minute they decided to get married. And so of course, they kept the baby! The baby was born and received with love and joy and was totally mothered. However, as this baby grew into her second year, she became abnormally affected and screamed with terror if her mother even went out of the room.

As their pastors (the husband had come to the Lord and the wife had been restored to the Lord), we prayed about it, and wondered if she was suffering from rejection of not being accepted during her time in the womb. We prayed over this little child and asked God to heal her from this rejection and from that moment she never had the problem again.

There is an interesting story mentioned in The Secret Life of the Unborn Child by Dr. Thomas Verny. When this particular baby was born, it would not move its head toward the breast of the mother but would turn away.

The doctor thought she may be ill but when she drank milk from the bottle in the nursery he ruled that one out. Next day the same thing happened so the doctor thought he would try an experiment. The next day he gave the sleepy baby to another mother who had consented to try to feed her. Immediately the baby rooted for the breast and sucked for all she was worth.

The doctor was now more than interested. He then went back to the real mother and asked, “Did you want this baby?” “No, “ she said. “I wanted an abortion. My husband wanted the child. That’s why I had her.” That was news to the doctor, but not to the baby! She had been rejected and was now rejecting her mother. 

Mothering starts in the womb,

not just when the baby is born!