The Mother-Baby Relationship Begins At Birth
Recently in the news, there was a 21-year-old, soon to be mother, who went into labour the day she had to take a final Babies Bound with Their Mothersexam. Her professor did not allow her to postpone the final, so she ended up taking the final exam in the hospital while she was having contractions 3 minutes apart.
Good for this mother for being determined to finish the final in such difficult circumstances! But where was the compassion and concern from her professor?
There are much more important things in life than taking a final, such as giving birth!
The last thing on this mother’s mind should not have been her final exam, but on having a baby and being able to bond with the baby right after birth.
On the subject of mother-baby bonding, some people may disagree with the title of this post, which suggests that mothers and babies begin to bond at birth.
Truthfully bonding probably begins when the baby is still in the womb. It’s been well established that babies while in the womb have auditory capabilities, which allows the baby to hear his or her mother’s voice as she talks and sings.
Perhaps the reason babies are capable of hearing while in the womb is nature’s way of helping the baby to bond with the mother and to help the baby to recognize his or her mother’s voice right after birth.
I would imagine the birthing process to be quite traumatic for a baby. From the baby’s perspective, he is 8 or 9 pounds and has to squeeze through a hole the size of bagel and ends up entering the world with a cone head because of it.
Not only is it a tight squeeze, but he goes from a cosy 98.6-degree environment to a 70-degree delivery room. That has to be shocked by the system!
Then what about taking that first gulp of air as the lungs start to function? While in the womb, a baby does not need her lungs. A baby receives all her oxygen from the mother’s blood which flows from the mother to the baby through the umbilical cord.
At birth, once the umbilical cord is clamped off, the lungs need to start working for oxygen to continue to circulate in the baby’s bloodstream. I imagine that has to be a bit of a shock for a baby to take its first gulp of air!
From a baby’s perspective, it must be traumatic being born, but it must be extremely comforting for the baby to hear it’s mother’s voice, crystal-clear and unmuffled, for the first time.
Nature does some wonderful things for babies and mothers in helping them bond with each other.