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DS thinks he remembers being born

125 replies

sparebooks · 08/02/2023 09:30

Walking along the road yesterday chatting to DS (4) about how his friend's mummy has had a baby pop out from her tummy.

He said "Mummy, when I popped out from your tummy all the noise hurted my ears?" I laughed and said oh do you remember it then? He was very earnest and reiterated that yes it was very noisy and his ears hurt. (Couldn't get anymore detail as he started talking about chocolate biscuits instead).

A quick google tells me that it's impossible to remember your birth. Does anyone else have DC with improbable memories / is he likely to be completely making this up..

OP posts:
Eastereggsboxedupready · 08/02/2023 09:33

My ds 10 told me he could remember his df driving him home from the hospital...
The step df who met him at 4 years old...
Dc are weird!

MaizeBlouse · 08/02/2023 09:35

Wow amazing! I wonder if our brains are capable of storing memories as early as birth?
Sadly its probably more likely that he has read/heard somewhere thay birth is noisy or something, but if that is a true memory then thats incredible!

We were on tbe train witjmh my then 3.5yo DS. It was a route we took all the time. We stopped in between 2 stations and he pointed to the shops visivle from the track and said 'i remember when that was a bakery, and that place fixed shoes' and reeled off all of these 'memories' from when he was an old man. I think he said there was a fire and he died? He was so nonchalant about it all...

sparebooks · 08/02/2023 10:25

That's hilarious! I agree more likely to be something he's imagined. He does come out with some odd stuff.

The only thing that makes me wonder is that he did have a traumatic birth and time in NICU. The main thing that I personally remember about that time is the bloody noise! Beeping and jarring bells all time of the day and night. I'm pretty sure I've never mentioned it to him though 🤔

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SirVixofVixHall · 08/02/2023 10:27

MaizeBlouse · 08/02/2023 09:35

Wow amazing! I wonder if our brains are capable of storing memories as early as birth?
Sadly its probably more likely that he has read/heard somewhere thay birth is noisy or something, but if that is a true memory then thats incredible!

We were on tbe train witjmh my then 3.5yo DS. It was a route we took all the time. We stopped in between 2 stations and he pointed to the shops visivle from the track and said 'i remember when that was a bakery, and that place fixed shoes' and reeled off all of these 'memories' from when he was an old man. I think he said there was a fire and he died? He was so nonchalant about it all...

Wow, did you check if he was right ?

AnotherVice · 08/02/2023 10:29

I went to a 94 year old patient yesterday who told me she remembers being born and how she recalls the tunnel with light at the end! I just thought she was a bit mad tbh but perhaps not!

SirVixofVixHall · 08/02/2023 10:29

I had a treatment that involved a warm lamp , and I had a really weird feeling that I felt could be a memory of being in an incubator.
My dd definitely remembered a specific thing that happened when she was six months old, as she talked about it when she was about 14 months (freakishly early talker).

GiltEdges · 08/02/2023 10:30

It definitely is possible, theoretically at least, though he’d be very unlikely to retain the memories in a way he could call on beyond his very early years. Some studies have been done into it, I can’t remember where I read about it, but it’s supposedly more common (though still very rare) in so-called “gifted” children.

Fireingrate · 08/02/2023 10:30

Apparently there is some sort of condition where people have extremely early memories. There was a programme on the radio about it. Like memories from being a very small baby.

it’s also likely your ds is making it up. Whatever you say, my ds will claim it happened to him, someone at his school and tell you an entire narrative about it.

Iwantabloodypizza · 08/02/2023 10:31

Ds used to say he remembered being in a hot glass box.

He was about 2 and a half. My friend bought her new baby over and he was crying and saying “where’s hot box? Baby needs hot box” as he got older and his speech got better he would talk about the see though hot box he was charging in (the wires I guess!)

We had no photos of him in the incubator, I couldn’t bear to take any and I had PTSD so never spoke about it.

I mean, of course he can’t remember 0-4 weeks old, he must have seen it on TV or something and it was a coincidence, but it was weird for a bit.

Fireingrate · 08/02/2023 10:34

@Iwantabloodypizza

He might remember.

HyacinthineMacaw · 08/02/2023 10:37

MaizeBlouse · 08/02/2023 09:35

Wow amazing! I wonder if our brains are capable of storing memories as early as birth?
Sadly its probably more likely that he has read/heard somewhere thay birth is noisy or something, but if that is a true memory then thats incredible!

We were on tbe train witjmh my then 3.5yo DS. It was a route we took all the time. We stopped in between 2 stations and he pointed to the shops visivle from the track and said 'i remember when that was a bakery, and that place fixed shoes' and reeled off all of these 'memories' from when he was an old man. I think he said there was a fire and he died? He was so nonchalant about it all...

I am fascinated by paranormal stuff, though put myself firmly in the nonbeliever camp, and there is a whole raft of discussion about small children being able to recall their past lives for the first few years of the current one. And many reports of small children being able to see ghosts that their adults can’t see. Someone who wrote the BBC Ghosts Christmas Special a few years ago had clearly also heard this, as they had Mike’s baby niece able to see the ghosts from her cot, and interact with Julian!

I had a few inexplicable things happen to me when I was primary age, so I do keep an open mind, though I have yet to find any proof that any of this stuff is true.

LadyMargaretDevereux · 08/02/2023 10:39

I remember talking to ds when he was very little, and I was telling him the story of how he used to be in my tummy. He looked at me, and giggled then said 'it was very dark in there!'.

Velvian · 08/02/2023 10:41

@Iwantabloodypizza , it is so sweet that he wanted to make the baby better with the hot box. He may be right. I remember something from when my parents insist I was under a year old. I only brought it up with them as an adult and they were a bit freaked out.

sparebooks · 08/02/2023 10:47

@Iwantabloodypizza

Ahh it sounds like you had a similar experience to us. Sorry you felt so traumatised, I think I do as well which is why I haven't yet mentioned to him that he was so fragile for the first couple of months of his life.

It really made me quite emotional thinking he could possibly remember that time!

OP posts:
Iwantabloodypizza · 08/02/2023 11:00

sparebooks · 08/02/2023 10:47

@Iwantabloodypizza

Ahh it sounds like you had a similar experience to us. Sorry you felt so traumatised, I think I do as well which is why I haven't yet mentioned to him that he was so fragile for the first couple of months of his life.

It really made me quite emotional thinking he could possibly remember that time!

It was the worst time of my life.

And the thing that made me feel so terrible
was that he opened his eyes for the first time in the incubator. I couldn’t walk after my section and no one would wheel me to see him, we were separated for 36 hours until I dragged myself down to NICU after a massive PPH and the transfusions, and I had to fight with the midwives to so that as none of them would help me or phone down to see how ds was.

One of the nurses was an absolute cow and said “oh look, you’ve finally decided to show your face. The first thing your son saw was the top of an incubator.”

So in a way, I am terrified that he could remember somewhere deep down that I wasn’t there (ex h could have been there 24/7 but he was tired and wanted to sleep).

stbrandonsboat · 08/02/2023 11:02

I can remember being in a navy blue pram surrounded by white. Parents did have a silver cross pram apparently.

I also remember being taken by a social worker on one of her calls and it was to this awful, grotty, dirty house. There was an old man living there and I was very frightened. I would have been about four.

UselessExLondoner · 08/02/2023 11:03

I found this documentary interesting, about a boy, called Cameron Macaulay, who remembered his past life.

zenmoments.org/the-boy-who-lived-before-the-past-life-memories-of-cameron-macauley/

There is a write up underneath it, incase you don't have time to watch the full 47 mins.

There's also another child, Carl Edon, who had past life memories.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6296347/amp/Was-Luftwaffe-pilot-reincarnated-boy-Middlesbrough.html

TonTonMacoute · 08/02/2023 11:05

I can remember being pushed in my pram, it's just a fleeting memory but very clear. I was lying on my back and DM was smiling down at me, I could see leaves on the trees passing above her head.

If it's real I would only have been weeks old

purpledalmation · 08/02/2023 11:07

I can't see how it's 'impossible' to remember things happening during birth. The memory is somewhere in the brain as the memory structures are formed, it's just we can't recall those memories for some reason. Entry into the world must be a massive sensory overload. Being handled for the first time, different temperatures on the skin, noise, light etc.

amidsummernightsdream · 08/02/2023 11:08

When I was a similar age I told my mum there was a light in her tummy when I was in there, in the same matter if fact way.
I don’t remember it now.
I don’t really think I was remembering it vs imagining what I thought it would be like, but who knows!
Of course we did experience it and it isn’t within the norms to remember it, but there are countless examples of where humans deviate and exceed the norms.
Interesting

TheLostGiraffe · 08/02/2023 11:10

My daughter has repeatedly mentioned "the other mummy she had before she was born", and talked about how she'll be sad when we all die and she will have a different family "next time". 😨😳 She's brought this up on at least four separate occasions over the last two years.

fUNNYfACE36 · 08/02/2023 11:12

Well children are known to be affected by neonatal experiences, so I am not sure it is impossible.

ancientgran · 08/02/2023 11:13

My son told me he remembered me as a little girl and I had no right telling him off as I was naughtier than he was.

TheLostGiraffe · 08/02/2023 11:13

ancientgran · 08/02/2023 11:13

My son told me he remembered me as a little girl and I had no right telling him off as I was naughtier than he was.

🤣

ehb102 · 08/02/2023 11:14

My work is trauma resolution. My colleagues say they have had people recalling birth memories. I never have although I think it's coming to recall very young memories.