Dr. Gerhard Schroth: Enabling an Inner Dialogue with Prenatal Bonding (BA) - Part 2

Karen welcomes Dr. Gerhard Schroth, a psychotherapist and trainer of Prenatal Bonding (BA), to the show for the conclusion of their conversation on the importance of an inner dialogue between mother and unborn child.

After gaining his education as a medical doctor, Dr. Schroth made his way through Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, Group-Analysis, Family Therapy, and various other orientations of psychotherapy before starting his outpatient office.

The pregnancies of three children gave him and his wife an opportunity to learn in a different way about the very early period of life than regularly communicated in those days. They learned from Michel Odent and Frederic Leboyer that attachment to the baby could happen long before birth and giving birth is much less a medical procedure than a very complex interaction between the mother giving birth and the baby finding through the narrow path into the world their parents are living in. Even as a father he was involved in this process already 45 years ago, something that has become pretty regular meanwhile.

Meeting William Emerson in Heidelberg in 1995 he realized how limited his knowledge as a medical doctor and psychoanalyst still was. Emerson really opened his eyes to the pre- and perinatal world and allowed him to research on his own prenatal experience in the womb of his mother. He began to train and research about the pre- and perinatal world with Emerson, Karlton Terry and many others over a period of nearly 10 years in Switzerland and the US.

Even before - in the early nineties - he had run into Jenoe Raffai, the originator of Prenatal Bonding (BA), who had presented the first research results of the new method, teaching pregnant women how to communicate with the baby in their womb. From the first second he was completely struck and convinced by this perspective and since then Dr. Schrot supported Raffai’s research in Germany. But there was a need to wait until 2003 when Raffai had finished his studies and was willing to open up his method to the professional public. His wife and Dr. Schroth were among the very first to learn from Raffai, how to safely apply the method. You won’t be surprised that he had been ”burning” for Raffai’s idea since the first moment of discovering this breakthrough in not only a pre- and perinatal knowledge but having in hand a method creating a safe space for a baby in the womb and an effortless birthing process for the baby, with nearly no need for medical interventions. Prenatal Bonding (BA) teaches women to find back to their natural capacity and to give birth beyond the medical perspective.

Being invited by William Emmerson to present the Raffai-method to the APPPAH Con-gress in Asilomar in 2009 Dr. Schrot met Michael Trout, who initiated the first training cohort in the USA. Since then, many practioners from different disciplines concerning pregnancy and birth have been trained by Dr. Schroth and his wife in the US. In Denver 2019 he received the APPPAH Research Award for his pre- and perinatal commitment in the US.

Since 2021, Dr. Schroth has conducted International Trainings with participants from Europe, the USA and Australia from his home in Germany near Frankfurt.

Part Two: