Parent- Infant Attachment …what is that?
Newborns have changed very little in evolutionary terms since we emerged as a separate species when we became upright. As our pelvic shape altered to allow us to stand on two feet, and our brains grew larger from using our hands more, babies needed to be born much earlier to be able to fit through this new shaped pelvis with their now large head. This meant that our babies are born very prematurely: probably about nine months prematurely.
Today our newborns have the least developed brain of all mammals, with only about 25% of the neo cortex (our rational higher brain) being functional at birth, compared to about 45% for other primates. We share however all the attributes of our ever present reptilian and mammalian brains. This means that babies are functioning from their lower primitive brain from birth not their rational, reflective part as this is almost entirely underdeveloped. This explains the rage, fear and separation distress that babies express right from birth.
It is this primitive alert system that ensures babies have their needs met, as they are entirely dependent for their very survival. Having an awareness of this may make it easier to care for your baby: knowing that your baby has no cognitive thought process or ability to self-reflect for a long time helps us to not assume adult behaviours, thoughts or feelings onto our babies. Of course this early birth puts a lot of pressure on the people caring for this vulnerable dependent person.
As their carer, you are programmed to respond to your newborn’s cry. Believe in the language of your baby’s cries. It is a signal designed for the survival of the baby and the development of the parents. Responding sensitively (most of the time) builds trust. Babies cry to communicate not manipulate.
In the first few days/weeks of the newborn’s life, mothers often find it difficult to switch off at all from the sounds her newborn makes enough for her to sleep. Her brain is programmed to be alert to her baby’s sounds and after weeks and months her higher brain is able to determine which sounds need to be responded to and when. I’m not sure this ever changes no matter how old your children are! This, however is much easier to do if the baby is near to you most of the time; hence co-sleeping and baby wearing are often popular parenting styles.
If this is your preference, wearing and sleeping near to your baby helps to promote healthy neurological brain development. Maximum contact with mother ensures strong neurological scaffolding, as babies are ill-equipped to effectively meet their own emotional needs.
I find it interesting that in the western world, where we are often provided with a ‘choice’ of where baby might sleep, that we are still encouraging separate sleep behaviours- despite the fact that the past five generations or so of babies have been forced to sleep alone with the objective of creating ‘good sleepers’. What do we have? -five generations of poor sleepers.
The babies’ higher brain will develop to become the control centre for the more primitive parts of the brain. This brain hard-wiring and trimming off of the higher brain happens entirely outside the womb. In fact our babies’ social capacities are really mostly potential, not actual at birth. There is nothing automatic about this development; instead it is entirely experience-dependent. (No pressure!!) Of course this is good from an evolutionary perspective: to ensure that each human can be melded to the environmental niche in which he/she finds himself.