By Rai Rojas,
Director, NRLC Hispanic Outreach

Part Two examines the bad signs for President Obama. Part Three looks at the larger issues involved in the attack on women-helping centers. Part Four explores what happens when Positive Alternatives are offered to pregnant women. And please be sure to read the latest at www.nationalrighttolifenews.org.  Send your thoughts and comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

When he was about six months old, my grandson and his mom came to my home for a visit. On one of those nights he woke us all up with, terrifying screams coming from his room. This was not a normal newborn cry and it was obvious that he was in distress.

My daughter and I arrived at his crib at almost the same time and she immediately picked him up and attempted to comfort him. But he was inconsolable and even his mother's voice could not soothe him. We lit a dim light and woke him up gently, once he saw our familiar faces he began to calm down, deep sighs, occasional sob, and he fell back to sleep almost immediately.

My six month old grandson had just experienced a nightmare. I was puzzled and hugely ignorant as to what could have caused such a small baby to have a night terror. My ignorance led to a Google search, and what I discovered was astounding, but because of what I do for a living it was also very troubling.

I found several articles on infant nightmares but a peer reviewed article by Dr. Alan Green, M.D. stands out the most.

He quoted a study by Roffwarg and Associates who at the start of their research believed that infants do not have REM [Rapid Eye Movement] sleep because they do not dream. But at the end of their study the researchers were startled to discover that not only do newborns dream – even on the first day of life – they actually dream more than the college students in their studies. (Science, 1966; 152:604)

"This study has been repeated several times," writes Dr. Greene, "confirming and expanding our knowledge. We dream more in the first 2 weeks of life than at any other time. The visual part of the brain is more active during newborn REM sleep than during adult sleep."

Then Dr. Greene asks and answers the question that both amazed and troubled me:

"If children dream from the moment that they are born, might they dream before that time?"

He continues: "We now know that they [unborn children] begin to sleep at as early as 4 weeks of gestation (Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 1975;38:175). Dreams appear to be a kind of parallel processing by which we integrate our experience, making new connections in our brains. In the uterus, babies probably dream about the muted light they see and the sounds they hear such as heartbeats, voices and music.

Shortly after birth, they dream about the explosion of new sights, sounds, tastes, smells and textures as they delight in getting to know their parents."

Here was scientific, peer reviewed proof that unborn children dream. As I read those articles and this one in particular on the night that my grandson had his nightmare, I couldn't help but think of the children who have survived late term abortions, and who dreamt as they were placed in linen or broom closets to die. I envisioned an unborn child's dream being interrupted by the slice of a curette, or the ingestion of poison.

We fight, we work, we live in the trenches, so that our youngest dreamers can survive. Please join us.

Please be sure to read the latest at www.nationalrighttolifenews.org.  Send your thoughts and comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Part Two
Part Three
Part Four