Garbhasanskar and Epigenetics: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Molecular Science

Background: Garbhasanskar or Garbha Samskara is described in contemporary Ayurvedic literature as a prenatal care framework centred on maternal diet, conduct, emotional state, and environment during pregnancy.
Aim and objectives: To review the available literature on Garbhasanskar and examine its conceptual relationship with epigenetic mechanisms involved in fetal programming.
Materials and methods: A narrative review was prepared using integrative articles on Garbha Samskara together with reviews on prenatal stress, maternal nutrition, antenatal mental health, and developmental epigenetics.
Results: The most consistent overlap between Garbhasanskar and modern developmental science concerns maternal nutrition, psychological well-being, mind-body practices, and supportive social surroundings during pregnancy. These domains are relevant to fetal programming through endocrine, inflammatory, placental, and epigenetic pathways.
Conclusion: Garbhasanskar may be interpreted as a culturally rooted prenatal health model that is biologically plausible in light of modern fetal programming research, although direct clinical and molecular validation of the complete Ayurvedic model is still limited.

Garbhasanskar, Epigenetics, fetal programming, maternal nutrition, prenatal stress, mantra therapy

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