The moment an infant is born is the most traumatic experience that human will ever encounter. The first feeling of loss, separation from the mother, and of vulnerability, is terrifying beyond comprehension for an infant that can barely move on it’s own nevermind fend for itself. That, combined with the most intense sensory overload possible (especially in the bright, dry, cold, loud, environment of a hospital room with multiple adults present), makes for a trauma unparalleled in the rest of that person’s life (after they’ve developed the coping mechanisms of conceptualization, verbalization, and reason).

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-trauma-addiction-connection/201109/are-we-born-trauma

What I’m interested in is what would happen to a human who was not exposed to such trauma at birth. We know for instance that circumcising an infant causes enough trauma to permanently alter the brain. My guess is the even greater trauma of birth is critical in shaping the neurology and psychology of most people. At some level, the mechanisms developed to deal with that trauma probably dictate how that person acts for the rest of their life and how they deal with later traumas.

So if steps were taken to minimize the trauma of birth, how would the human ego develop differently?
>giving birth in a dark, warm, quiet setting, maybe a warm water birth, to imitate the womb and ease the infant slowly into sensory experience
>letting the mother coddle the infant immediately instead of a doctor whisking it away
>not severing the umbilical cord until it’s empty and shriveled
Would that person be more like a Zen master from birth to death?
Also, can our current understanding of PTSD be useful in relieving the birth trauma and related psychological defenses to fundamentally alter an adult’s personality?

I’d love to see studies related to this