“The act of birth is the first experience of anxiety, and thus the source and prototype of the affect of anxiety.”

Simplified Meaning:

When you are born, it's your first time feeling scared or worried because you are leaving a safe and warm place inside your mother and entering a new, unknown world. Imagine you're in a cozy bed, and suddenly someone pulls you out into a cold room full of strange noises and bright lights; it's natural to feel anxious. This early experience teaches us what fear and anxiety are, and it becomes a model for all the other times in our lives when we feel anxious. Think about your first day at school, how nervous you felt because it was new and different. Our birth works in a similar way, giving us a sense of what anxiety feels like, which we carry with us and can recognize in later situations. By understanding that anxiety is a normal part of life that starts from the beginning, we can learn to manage it better, knowing that it’s just a part of our human experience.