Umbilical Affect Baby Body Language

with Karlton Terry

Each one of us has been emotionally and psychologically conditioned and programmed by the nine months we lived in the womb. Our relationship to our mother and the outer world was structured, sustained and coloured by our connection through the umbilical cord.

Many of our bodily experiences passed through the little umbilical ring. In many ways the umbilicus is the puppeteer of babies’ (volitional and non-volitional) movements and their inner bodily experiences and memories.

Umbilical Affect colours how we eat, how we get what we need to survive, and how we ‘digest’ the human experience (food, love, oxygen, information, emotional input, sensuality). Understanding how this plays out in baby body language is like putting on a set of X-ray glasses and seeing into the baby’s core.

One of the ways that this body language is expressed is Metaphoric Umbilical Mouth Movements (MUMMS). These are the visual prosodies conveyed through facial (mostly oral) expression that explain unprocessed issues stored in implicit memories from our Umbilical Affect. MUMMS are pleas for therapeutic attention. Silent emotional/psychological communication becomes clear when we are gifted with glimpses of MUMMS and “Shadow Leaks” from baby and adult clients.

In this class Karlton describes some classic Baby Body Language in response to umbilical issues and will explore how to recognize MUMMS and utilize their value as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool. He will help to identify the differences between prenatal umbilical affect and the effects of cord cutting.