If we stop and think about how we all came to be here, it's actually pretty amazing. Physically, the developments that took place in our bodies in the first nine months are the most dramatic and incredible of our lives, but also amazing is that before we even were aware of it, before anyone knew our name, we each had a relationship with another human being. Our first and most fundamental relationship was with our mother.

This relationship started with conception, the moment that our mothers' bodies first recognized our existence. Scientifically and medically speaking our lives began at this moment. The moment when our fathers sperm combined with our mothers egg something original happened - a completely unique genetic code was formed different than any other in the history of the human race. All the information about who we would become was suspended in this tiny glowing orb of life. When you looked like this, it was already determined whether you were a boy or a girl, how tall you would be, what colour eyes and hair you would have - even parts of your personality. And this genetic code linked you with your mother in some ways - you may have her smile, and with your father in others - his outgoing personality. But you were not a copy of either - you were unique; a new, separate and original human individual.

 Your mother's body recognized this fact and responded physically in a most courteous way. As your body released hormones signifying your presence, her body responded by suppressing her immune system so that her immune system would not attack you as a foreign object. While this put her at more risk of getting a cold, it allowed her body to participate in building the placenta and providing a safe home for your growing body.

 The placenta is a physical metaphor for this relationship. Your body build half of it and it merged with your mother's uterine lining. The placenta connected you to your mother and allowed you to obtain all the nutrients, and oxygen you needed to grow while at the same time allowing you to dispose of your waste. So the pattern for your relationship was laid out on a cellular level: as the child you would take all you needed from your mother and your mother would give it to you, asking nothing in return. This is the way of things, the natural order. It is normal, healthy and right. When we see a derivation from this norm - when a mother requires something in return for her nuturing, it is agreed to be a dysfunctional and unhealthy relationship.

You could not survive without your mother, you relied on her, and yet though connected, you were not part of her. You had your own blood flow, which never mixed with your mother's but began pumping around your tiny body when your heart began to beat at 23 days.

By six weeks you were more than 10,000 times larger than you were at conception. Your legs, hands, fingers and eyes could be seen. Your brain was already alive and sending signals down your spinal chord.

 By eight weeks, you had your own unique fingerprints. This small detail - invisible to the outside world asserts once more the fact that even at this early stage you were a unique individual. So much depends now on your mother's natural care for you. Everything she does can have an impact on your future, from the foods she eats to the chemicals she puts into her body. It is for this reason that pregnant women avoid alcohol and smoking, and take folic acid.

 All this special care allowed your body the time to grow. By twelve weeks you were amazingly detailed - right down to your delicate fingernails. You could respond to touch and feel pain, and cry silently. You were a tiny baby, trusting instinctively that everything would turn out right and in time that cry would be heard.

Everything you did was a preparation for that future.

Although your mother could not feel you yet, you began to kick and move at about 10 weeks. You were practicing and building muscle strength. You had been doing this for over a month when she first began to feel you at about 16 weeks. For the first time a thrill of recognition went through your mother - all this time she had known you were there, but could not see or feel you - now here you were, making your presence known. You kicked and rolled, poked and prodded. Your senses were making you more aware of your mother as well. You could hear her voice and respond to it. Studies have shown that unborn babies learn to recognize both their mother and their fathers voices. Typically, these voices have a very calming effect, but if you heard them shouting angrily, your heart rate would have gone up, and over time your stress hormones would have increased, causing your brain to form patterns that meant that you were more prone to anxiety. Our parents affected us even before we were born.

As you used all five of your senses to explore your world, you were preparing for the moment you would meet your parents, and preparing yourself to live outside your mother, taking your first advancement to independence.  But it would be many years before you would be completely independent, for even after you were born you relied on your mother to physically feed you and take care of you. And so this first, primal relationship continued after birth in many ways the way it always had, with you taking what you needed and your mother willing giving.

 t is ultimately important as a society that we view this new relationship between a mother and her baby in a caring and nurturing way, that we empower and help in whatever way we can so that a mother is supported in this relationship.  That we acknowledge and never forget the awe and wonder of how each and everyone of us develops inside the womb and the special bond that we have with our mothers that created us and the relationships we have with those that cared for us when we were at such a vulnerable stage in our development.