Do you remember your own birth?

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I moved to a new house on my 2nd birthday. I have severe measles at the time and can remember absolutely nothing of the house I moved from. So the cut off age is no earlier than exactly 2 years old and no earlier.
Any memory before 5 was very patchy. But there are a few exceptions I can remember when we first got TV in 1956 and for a while it fightened me I was too scared to walk up and touch the screen for I thought is was glowing white hot. The Micky Mouse cartoons also frighened me and I had nighmares over them jumping out of hollows in the trees. Then I was three and I can remember instances when I used to bang my head on walls when I had tantrums so hard I staggered around and vomited. They were nasty. Again only 3

Paul

When I was very young I remember telling my mother that I remembered before I was born and describing it to her, and she did not believe me. It has made me doubt it so now I am not sure if I really remembered it or not :S. Was it a dream that I was remembering or was it really before I was born? I do have lots of other very early memories, though, including before I could talk. I think our memories get reshaped over time, though, as we go back and remember them... the perspective changes. Also I sometimes doubt my own memories of things, becuase I know that I tend to fill things in that aren't there on more recent perceptions.

For example, if I see a person I have never seen before, and try to remember them later, I will only remember certain details. But as I try to picture him more fully in my mind or start to daydream, I HAVE to fill in other areas that are missing... like what kind of shoes was he wearing? what did his nose look like? At a certain point if I have been revisualizing missing details, I don't know which ones I really saw, and which ones I filled in. I might see the person again and they are totally different. This could be why I have trouble recognizing people.

Hi everybody.

Glad I find this forum.

I remember my own birth and also some details from being in the womb. I remember in the womb I was sleeping most of the time and only woke up briefly with long intervals. Every time I woke up, something had changed on my growing body and the changes always scared me. There was always a faint nice red light in the womb and I could see everything clear and in color. When I was finally pushed into a red tunnel with a lot of concentric rings, I tried to resist, I did not wanne leave paradise. But my efforts were invain and I was born. Once born the very bright light blinded me almost and for weeks to come I could only see light and dark grey shadows. I remember the cold I felt once I was born and was held in the air upside down by my feet and something hit my back and I started to cry (this was done in this time where I live by a doctor to stimlulate the start the breathing as I later found out).

Jeroen from The Netherlands

I don't think it's possible to remember before one is three (that's what a psycho told me anyway).

For me, it was Christmas at four.

Next remarkable thing I remember was when I was about two months old. I was born in October and in December of that year there was an end-of-the-year's storm as is common every year around the Norh Sea countries. The wind pushed a window out of the house in my room and my room was filled with a heavy sound and wind and woke me up from my sleep (my parents had just moved to a newly build house still partly under construction and the windows were not properly finished yet, they were only plastic). I had no idea what it was and it scared me very much as if it was a frightening monster. Then my mother heard me crying, can into the room and put the plastic back in place.

When I spoke with my mother years later about this, she said I could impossibly remember that as I was only two months old, but still she confirmed that it happened that way.

I still have very strong memory. If people told me intimate things about theirselfs 10 or 20 years ago and I confront them with it nowadays, they seem to be surprised and ask me how on Earth I know about that. When I tell them they told me 10 or 20 years ago, they react with the fact that from so long ago they do not remember that. So seems my memory is stronger than with most people and yes, if memory is strong enough, it can also recall own birth, I see no problem with that.

Childhood Amnesia

Very few people have memories before the age of 3, the are many hypotheses but nobody really knows why, though I think the physical development and language explainations have the most merit.

I can't remember further back than being almost 1 year old. That's where I understood words of what my mom said to me and I also knew what to call her (I mean 'mama'), although I struggled with saying it and couldn't do it.

I also remember that I could talk at age two, answer questions, persist that I'd receive an answer and that I didn't know that my father was sitting in front of what is called a computer. Or that the picture on the wall was showing a steam engine. Well, he never printed me a teddy bear, although I asked him many times. Something I find interesting: I remembered that I asked him many times whenever I asked him again too.
Which means I just kept my memory in the same format - which would also explain the difference of my memory which is kind of broken, recording differently.

I can remember the arrangement of the house I lived in until I was and a half so that when I visited 12 years later, I wasn't very interested in being shown the house and it annoyed me that I was being told how I should be careful with the stairs. I was never allowed to actually walk down the stairs when I was a toddler, I had to sit on the step and then slip to the next one, mom was very keen about it.

I think I remember my birth, or at least the sensations from it. I don't remember understanding anything around me, or being able to interpret much of it. I remember a massive all over pressure, followed by cold, disorienting pain. I can still remember the extremely unpleasant sensation of being wrapped in a very uncomfortable cloth and laid on a flat surface and being afraid to move.

Disorientation, trauma, pain and fear are the most vivid sensations from that time.

I dont recall my birth, but have memories starting when i was 3. My memories from that point are very detailed and tho I am sure i forgot far more then I remember currently I have lots of memories thru my whole life both good and bad.

That's one memory I'm glad I don't have. Especially if coupled with photographic memory.

Though I did write a poem inspired by imagining life within the womb as senses begin to develop.

i dont remember it.
I was told that i was Born late though, and the cord was round my Neck and they had to Pull me out with one of those things.
I wonder if thats how my as developed.

i do remember learning to roll over though. Nobody believes me when i say i remember that. i also remember being frustrated when i couldnt speak and could only speak 'baby talk' but nobody believes that one either

I don't remember my birth, BUT...

I do remember A LOT of things from when I was 5 or 6 months onwards. We moved to another country when I was 2 so that gives a cut-off date for them, and many of these memories I've come out with to my parents and taken them aback to say the least. For example, they might be talking about something with a friend from back then. I'd say "Oh, I remember that, and remember when I did _______? And then ______? And that thing was there?" or whatever. Mum would kind of step back, blink, stare at me and say "How the hell can you remember that? You weren't even walking then!!"

It's funny, all of those memories though are of things being huge - when I picture things in my mind, they're enormous. For example, sitting in my stroller counting the cracks in the footpath, and all the foothpath slabs are huge. There was a hibiscus in the front garden, but I always remember the flowers as being the size of dinner plates. The kitchen cupboards were enormous to me, in my memory, as I picture them. It'd be so strange to go back now and see them as they really are, from the perspective of a 21 year old instead of a 2 year old.

My earliest memory was probably around two or three years of age.

I don't remember my birth, but being a visual Aspie, I need to go sear that image out of my brain.... I'm thinking Evanescence at about 10 decibels above hearing loss level...

i wouldnt want to remember my own birth
my mum said theere was a lot of blood