Birth is often seen as the starting point for studying effects of the environment on human development, with much research focused on the capacities of young infants. However, recent imaging advances have revealed that the complex behaviours of the fetus and the uterine environment exert influence. Birth is now viewed as a punctuate event along a developmental pathway of increasing autonomy of the child from their mother. Here we highlight (1) increasing physiological autonomy and perceptual sensitivity in the fetus, (2) physiological and neurochemical processes associated with birth that influence future behaviour, (3) the recalibration of motor and sensory systems in the newborn to adapt to the world outside the womb and (4) the effect of the prenatal environment on later infant behaviours and brain function. Taken together, these lines of evidence move us beyond nature–nurture issues to a developmental human lifespan view beginning within the womb.

出生通常被视为研究环境对人类发展影响的起点，许多研究都集中在婴儿的能力上。然而，最近的影像学进展表明，胎儿的复杂行为和子宫环境会产生影响。现在，出生被视为孩子脱离母亲的自主性不断增强的发展道路上的一个间断事件。在这里，我们强调（1）提高胎儿的生理自主性和感知敏感性，（2）与出生相关的影响未来行为的生理和神经化学过程，（3）新生儿运动和感觉系统的重新校准以适应外界世界子宫和（4）产前环境对后来婴儿行为和大脑功能的影响。总而言之，这些证据使我们超越了先天和后天的问题，转向从子宫内开始的人类寿命发展的观点。