Bonding is the intense attachment that develops between parents and
their baby. It makes parents want to shower their baby with love and
affection and to protect and nourish their little one. Bonding gets
parents up in the middle of the night to feedtheir hungry baby and makes them attentive to the baby's wide range of cries.
Scientists are still learning a lot about bonding. They know that the
strong ties between parents and their child provide the baby's first
model for intimate relationships and foster a sense of security and
positive self-esteem. And parents' responsiveness to an infant's signals
can affect the child's social and cognitive development.
Why Is Bonding Important?
Bonding is essential for a baby. Studies of newborn monkeys who were
given mannequin mothers at birth showed that, even when the mannequins
were made of soft material and provided formula to the baby monkeys, the
babies were better socialized when they had live mothers to interact
with. The baby monkeys with mannequin mothers also were more likely to
suffer from despair. Scientists suspect that lack of bonding in human
babies can cause similar problems.
Most infants are ready to bond immediately. Parents, on the other hand,
may have a mixture of feelings about it. Some parents feel an intense
attachment within the first minutes or days after their baby's birth.
For others — especially if the baby is adopted or has been placed in
intensive care — it may take a bit longer.
But bonding is a process, not something that takes place within minutes
and not something that has to be limited to happening within a certain
time period after birth. For many parents, bonding is a byproduct of
everyday caregiving. You may not even know it's happening until you
observe your baby's first smile and suddenly realize that you're filled
with love and joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment