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Why Bonding with Your Baby is Important
Bonding with your baby is vital to your baby’s development. Bonding and attachment give your baby the love, care and warmth that they need. When you do this, you become a special, trusted person in your baby’s life. When your baby feels the world is a safe place to play, learn and explore, then it will build a foundation for your child’s development and wellbeing throughout childhood.
Bonding with your baby also helps your baby’s mental growth tremendously. How the chemical connection a mum has with her baby within the first hour of birth sets the tone for their relationship and helps determine the future emotional and physical health of the child. Repeated human contact like touching, cuddling, talking, singing and gazing into each other’s eyes make your newborn’s brain release hormones.
What Happens and Bond Development during Labor
During labor, a woman’s body releases oxytocin, a hormone that causes the uterus to contract and expel the baby (its synthetic form, Pitocin, is sometimes administered to women to speed up deliveries). Oxytocin is also a feel-good hormone heavily involved with bonding; it’s released during orgasm and when breastfeeding. This hormone is like a natural pain relief and bliss inducing medicine, as is the baby, creating the love at first sight moment.
Experts say the bond that develops between the two during this time not only sets the tone for their whole relationship, it also helps to determine the future emotional and physical health of the child for decades to come.
The power of touch and the love hormone oxytocin are so powerful that the mother and the baby connection is not only a biological one but also can have a profound effect on the physiology of a baby. This bonding and attachment also makes your baby calmer and releases his/her stresses.
Stress can actually change how an infant’s genes express themselves later in life. “Stress could switch ‘on’ the genes for certain disorders and switch ‘off’ genes that help us manage stress effectively, the strength of your bond with your parents or caregivers — can physically alter certain genes, for better or for worse.
Bonding with Your Baby: Here are the 20 Ways
So what are the ways to bond with your baby, here let’s share some ideas:
- Get a head start on bonding with your baby; it starts as early as those first little flutters in your belly. As your baby grows, consider all those little kicks and movements as early signs of their personality asserting itself. Meanwhile, your baby is hanging on your every word. By the time your baby is born, he or she is able to recognize your voice, so talk to your baby as often as you can, even when they are in your belly.
- Breastfeeding provides an incredible opportunity for bonding. While you nourish your baby, she snuggles in close (exactly where she wants to be) and takes in your scent, the sound of your heartbeat, and the sensation of your touch.
- Skin to skin contact. Holding your baby close on your bare chest is known as “skin-to-skin,” and it’s one of the best things you can do for your newborn. Early, constant contact with your warm skin helps to stabilize his body temperature, heart rate, and stress levels. It also releases oxytocin in both of you.
- Regularly touch and cuddle your newborn. From birth, your newborn can feel even the gentlest touch. Try stroking your newborn gently when you change a nappy or at bath time.
- Gentle infant massage can not only improve the relationship between parent and baby but also relieve stress in infants and ease postpartum depression in mothers.
- Respond to crying. You might not always be able to tell why your newborn is crying. But by responding, you let your newborn know that you’re always there.
- Hold your baby. Try rocking or holding your newborn against you, skin on skin. Or carry your baby in a carrier or sling.
- Make your newborn feel physically safe. Provide good head and neck support when you’re holding your baby. Or try wrapping your baby, which recreates the secure feeling of being in the womb.
- Talk to your new born as often as you can in soothing, reassuring tones. You could talk about what you’re doing, or tell stories. This helps your newborn learn to recognise the sound of your voice. It will also help your newborn learn language later.
- Sing songs. Your newborn will probably like the up and down sounds of songs and music, as well as rhythm. Soothing music might help both of you feel calmer too. Your newborn won’t mind if you’ve forgotten the words or the tune.
- Look into your newborn’s eyes while you talk, sing and make facial expressions. This helps your newborn learn the connection between words and feelings.
- Sleep with your baby close by. Have your baby sleep in your room in a bassinet next to or attached to your bed. This will make nighttime feedings easier and help curb your new baby anxiety. Babies tend to be much calmer and sleep better when they sense you nearby.
- Eyes to eyes and face to face contact that are meaningful will be vital to the mother and baby relationship. From early on your baby will try to imitate yoir facial expressions and gestures. These are so helpful for open communication between you and your child.
- Form little routines can give your baby a sense of stability. Observe your baby’s expressions, movements and reactions can help you understand your baby’s interests and dislikes, so that you can gradually build a routine that is aimable for the baby and yourself.
- Attention, kisses and more hugs, spoil your baby with pure attention, exchanging kisses, let the laundry pile up and spending quality time with your baby. As a result of these pure mother and bub bonding, you will both be happier, calmer, and more self-assured for it.
- Take in your baby’s smell. Sadly, no one has yet figured out a way to bottle baby smell, so since you’ve got the good stuff right under your nose, sniff away. You’ll find that your little one’s scent is even more intoxicating than any other baby’s. Ever. In the history of the world.
- Look into the mirror together. Baby’s enjoy reflections of themselves and their parents in the mirror. By looking into the mirror together with your baby, you not only build their cognitive skill in recognizing human faces but also help them to gradually understand self-identity.
- Talk in your baby’s language can improve your relationship with him/her. Your baby will feel that it is not a one way communication but you are also living in his/her world and understanding him/her. I always speak to my beautiful girl in her words such as Neh, Dada, Mama, En-Neh-Deh, Deh-Deh, Darling and so on, she would smile back with trust, content and connection.
- Write a journey for your baby. Your baby’s first year will usually be flew in a blur, so record all the sweet memories you’re making together. Feel free to unearth the diary in 16 years when he brings his first date over the house!
- Do something sweet for your partner. Whether you realize it or not, your baby is picking up on the bond his parents share. Strengthen it by making a special dinner, or have a pleasant chitty chatty moment, or taking the time to watch a movie together…just like old times! Babies raised under parents with positive relationships tend to be calmer, happier and more loving.
Healthy Mum and Bub hope the above helps with building an incredible bonding journey for you mums and dads with your beautiful little ones. Let’s keep the love in the air and spread it more than ever, especially during these pandemic years. Hold onto our faith strong and cherish our family lives together!
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