Session 5/15

For millions of years, mammals have created physical contact between mother and baby. You see dogs, cats, cows and many other mammals lick their puppets often, and give them close physical contact by lying next to them. This is not only to keep them clean; licking also activates the pup’s or the cub’s brain, and physical contact is also an important “starter” of attachment and emotional bonding between a baby animal and its mother. A baby animal not being licked after birth will probably die after a while because of a lack of brain activity. ”Depression” really means “low activity“, so baby depression stems from a lack of physical stimulation, causing a low brain activity level. Institutionalized and abandoned babies are particularly exposed to a lack of this stimulation, having lost their first caregivers or being in undermanned institutions. Many dysfunctional parents are not able to stimulate their babies physically, and many children are not stimulated enough prior to their placement in the institution or the foster family.

Mammals are born with a very immature and unstable brain, and in the start of life, brain activity can only increase and stabilize if the baby is often stimulated by physical contact.

Touching (skin contact) after birth is also very important for activating the attachment system.
Problems in early attachment are seen if mothers of new-borns are prevented from touching and taking up their new-born whenever they feel the urge to do so.

For example in hospital studies of birth practices: When new-borns are taken away from the mother according to a fixed schedule during the day, the mothers will more frequently experience feelings of guilt, be more insecure in understanding and interpreting how the baby feels and what it needs and be more insecure in taking decisions about baby care.
If the physical separation periods are very long, the mother may lose the feeling of attachment to the baby and perceive it as a stranger. The feeling of bonding depends on free access to physical contact between mother and baby for a long time after birth.
Premature birth and birth complications are not only a problem for the physical condition of the baby, the fragile new-born will often be separated from the mother for medical reasons (incubators, etc.), and this can have a negative effect on both the baby’s brain activity and the mothers feeling of being attached to the child. For this reason, in many birth hospitals, newborns are no longer separated from their mothers .

If you receive an understimulated newborn or toddler in foster care, here are ways to stimulate brain activity:

You can find a lot of videos on YouTube showing baby massage techniques.