TED Talks are informative and often innovative talks from knowledgeable speakers, aimed to provide free education and food for thought, each under 18 minutes in length. They’re done in person with a live audience at conferences, and then uploaded onto the TED website and YouTube. It can be a bit daunting because there are a LOT of TED Talks about every topic under the sun. Previously I compiled my Top 5 TED Talks about Babies – and after watching dozens (maybe hundreds) of TED Talks I’d like to share more. Watching them has kept me throughout pregnancy, with a newborn baby and on maternity leave. In fact, I even watched a few in the hospital whilst I was being induced as they’re one of my favourite free video content.
When you’re pregnant you want to soak up as much information as possible. So here’s my compilation covering genetics and biology, psychology and empowerment for pregnant women.
My Top 5 TED Talks to watch whilst Pregnant
What Babies Learn Before They’re Born by Annie Murphy Paul
When does learning begin? Now as you ponder that question, maybe you’re thinking about the first day of preschool or kindergarten, the first time that kids are in a classroom with a teacher. Or maybe you’ve called to mind the toddler phase when children are learning how to walk and talk and use a fork. Maybe you’ve encountered the Zero-to-Three movement, which asserts that the most important years for learning are the earliest ones. And so your answer to my question would be: Learning begins at birth. Well today I want to present to you an idea that may be surprising and may even seem implausible, but which is supported by the latest evidence from psychology and biology. And that is that some of the most important learning we ever do happens before we’re born, while we’re still in the womb.
Conception to Birth Visualized by Alexander Tsiaras
Image-maker Alexander Tsiaras shares a powerful medical visualization, showing human development from conception to birth and beyond. (Some graphic images.)
The Lies we Tell Pregnant Women by Sofia Jawed-Wessel
“When we tell women that sex isn’t worth the risk during pregnancy, what we’re telling her is that her sexual pleasure doesn’t matter … that she in fact doesn’t matter,” says sex researcher Sofia Jawed-Wessel. In this eye-opening talk, Jawed-Wessel mines our views about pregnancy and pleasure to lay bare the relationship between women, sex and systems of power.
How Early Life Experience is Written into DNA by Moshe Szyf
Moshe Szyf is a pioneer in the field of epigenetics, the study of how living things reprogram their genome in response to social factors like stress and lack of food. His research suggests that biochemical signals passed from mothers to offspring tell the child what kind of world they’re going to live in, changing the expression of genes. “DNA isn’t just a sequence of letters; it’s not just a script.” Szyf says. “DNA is a dynamic movie in which our experiences are being written.”
What Your Momma Never Told You About Childbirth by Marianne Ryan
Pregnancy and childhood can be an amazing experience. Unfortunately there are ongoing physical problems that remain long after childbirth. Marianne explains why modern maturity leaves are too short and what recent mothers should do to ensure they fully recover a healthy body.
I hope you’ve found these relevant TED Talks about pregnancy interesting or helpful. If you have time, it’s well worth checking out these TED Talks about Babies next!
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