Birth is one of the most significant events that we will ever experience. The tidal wave of feelings and emotions that it brings profoundly disrupt mother and child as well as those who surround them. This intense “violent shock” transition may be more or less traumatic for the tiny being that has just left a cosy and protective cocoon. Whether the experience is smooth or stressful, arriving in the world is nevertheless a decisive stage in an individual’s life.
What consequences can result from precocious mother-child separation in the moments following birth?
How do we remedy an internal division to change our behaviour towards our own children?
What needs does body contact between mother and child address and what benefits does it bring?
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There is a risk that painful events that are impossible for the fragile newborn to handle, such as separation from the mother at birth and the abandonment feelings which ensue will instead be repressed. Later the adult will probably cut themselves off from these painful feelings and try to forget them, creating an interior division that may have harmful repercussions on their social behaviour. The adult who has not processed their emotions will in effect risk expressing this suffering through their behaviour. We may wish to consider the influence of this internal emotional fracture on the emergence of different relational problems.
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Neurobiologist Gerald Hüther showed that prenatal experiences contribute to programming our memory. Indeed, it is during life in the womb that the network of neurons and synapses is formed and that unused potentialities perish. The embryo’s brain is prepared for what awaits it based on the experiences lived in the mother’s womb, it develops a pattern that in a large part determines the individual’s future existence. It is therefore important to take into consideration negative influences such as the parents’ stress, suffering and shortcomings, along with environmental factors. The very strong emotions that surface during and immediately after birth, may nevertheless soften this pattern and reimprint it with new positive or negative messages.
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The Human Being is a Parent-Clinger – Mother Nature knows best and shows what is naturally good for each individual. In our western culture, human beings have for a long time been incorrectly classified as altricial, hence the corresponding care given to babies who were set aside in ‘nests’ following the example of cats and mice. However, the young human is neither altricial nor nidifugous (those whose young are as mobile from birth as the adults and follow their mothers or herd wherever they go, eg. buffalo, horses, etc.). From birth one can observe primitive reflexes proving that the human infant is designed to be carried.
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Orang-utans carry their young for two years. If the mother is killed by poachers, the infant will not survive unless it is carried day and night by a human for eighteen months. This experiment was successfully carried out as part of a reintegration project in Asia and shows the importance of body contact between mother and infant and the feelings of security that this creates.
In many Western countries we are often still advised to leave an infant to sleep and cry alone in a crib or a barred infant bed. After World War Two it was noticed that the infant mortality rate among children of less than one year old was lower in poor families despite poor hygienic conditions. In contrast to children from wealthier families, the poorest had more body contact with their mother.
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Until recently there hasn't been a study examining the effects of buggy orientation on the interaction between parents and children, and on children's stress levels. Research into this field has now been done thanks to a team of scientists from Dundee University in Scotland, who published their results last November. This research shows that children who are transported while facing outwards, can become emotionally isolated and may develop poorer language skills.
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Baby carrying has many positive effects on a baby's psychological development. The body closeness from baby carrying provides warmth as well as reassuring and familiar sounds and movement. Children feel relieved when their need for contact is met. As a result they do not have to devote their energy to their protection and survival (secretion of stress hormones). They can focus their energy on their development and discover their environment while being cradled in a protective cocoon. This close physical contact provides children with the body contact and affection that they need. Body-to-body contact is particularly important during the first few moments after birth.
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A baby’s body develops in direct response to multiple sensory stimuli through touch, smell, hearing, taste and sight. Carrying babies actively promotes their general body development in response to various stimuli such as: skin-to-skin contact (the baby’s body swaddled against the parent’s), continuously felt movement, smell of the skin, sound of a heartbeat or a voice, taste of the skin and recognition of the face that is only a few centimetres away. These stimuli are particularly helpful for premature babies whose development is at an earlier stage than full-term babies. "Newborns can be carried while they sleep, so baby carrying presents a natural form of prevention of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome." (Dr Susan Markel).
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Baby carrying can have significant advantages to you from a physical and psychological point of view. You can find more information related to the ERGObaby Carrier here. First of all, the ERGObaby Carrier is light (690 g) and its ergonomic design ensures that it does not strain the adult’s back. The child's weight is perfectly distributed across the adult's body, from the shoulders down to the hips. The wide waist belt is designed to protect the woman’s perineum, which is significantly slackened after giving birth. When the baby is carried correctly, swaddled against the adult, baby carrying strengthens the wearer’s back muscles which provides additional protection to the back. Baby carrying can help you to get back in shape.
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The term “dysplasia” is a combination of plasia, which stems from the Greek “plasis” and means “process of a development/formation” and the prefix dys, stemming from the Greek “dus”, which expresses the absence of something. Thus, a dysplasia is a malformation in the development of a tissue or an organ. Hip dysplasia, CDH for short (for congenital dysplasia of the hip), is an umbrella term for congenital or acquired false positions or disorders of the ossification of the newborn’s hip joint.
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What is the anatomically correct natural sitting position? This question is discussed widely and this article aims to clarify this matter.
When a child is born he / she is in a state of so-called total kyphosis (the back is rounded so much as to resemble the letter C). The child’s spine is still bent as it was in the womb. Even though the child’s hip joint already receives its final shape in the womb, it only matures after birth, since the cartilaginous matter of which the hip joint consists turns into bone over time.
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