Newborn baby
In different cultures and societies, what are the similarities and differences in early years care?
As many as 50-75% of new mothers will have postpartum blues. About 70-80 percent of women who have had an abortion experience the baby blues for several days. Most new mothers will experience the baby blues after birth, which usually include mood changes, crying spells, anxiety, and sleep difficulties. Any new mom may experience postpartum depression, which may develop after any child is born, not just their first. Postpartum depression in dads--sometimes called fatherly postpartum depression--can have similar negative effects on the partners' relationship and on their children's development that mommy-induced postpartum depression does. Postpartum depression can have ripple effects, creating emotional distress for anyone around a new baby.
Sometimes, the woman experiences temporary withdrawal from a baby whose birth caused grief or emotional trauma. Or the new mom might feel an overwhelming need to care for herself, with the pain and exhaustion competing with her interest in her newborn. It can also depend on the mother's receptiveness--or the partners that baby has experienced--to her infant.
When the infant or toddler is less available to latch on and latch on because of an earlier injury, the infant or toddler may not react the way one would expect when parents try to comfort, soothe, and bond. If a mother is depressed, and thus is not emotionally engaged with her infant, these infants are in danger, as these infants are not learning about themselves. Babies are used to whoever is more familiar, so if you are around a mother who is depressed and less responsive, those babies are going to respond more to those less responsive, and therefore they are perpetuating the risk factor themselves.
Infants are likely to learn feelings more easily through other people because people are responsive to babies. One thing babies learn very early on is that their actions influence the responses of others--they feel they are active agents in the environment, and that, as such, the world is more than a show of sounds and lights. Brain development, learning ability, emotional stability, physical coordination, early language skills, and self-esteem are all affected by life's first experiences.
Although newborns have an unconscious mind, these early experiences serve as a blueprint for the future mental development that follows. This influence of the bond between mother and baby, which occurs so early in life, has an important impact on a baby's later psychological development. What it shows is that what newborns or premature babies are exposed to does not just affect their capacity for bonding and making decisions later on in life, but it actually contributes to the structure of their brains and nervous systems.
Infants are still growing, they are not yet fully formed, and the experiences and reactions from the earliest stages are being integrated into their developing bodies and nervous systems. In the neonate period, the stress regulatory system influences the baby's ability to form attachments to others, explore and learn about their world, and receive feedback from others that helps it to grow. When a mother's labour is contracted, or when a birth is difficult, structural damage in these areas of a child's body may result in lasting effects on the nervous system.
Add prolonged, challenging labor, forceps-assisted birth, or life-threatening circumstances, and the birthing experience can be exceptionally traumatizing. Parents' physical and emotional well-being impacts their ability to care for children and engage in the responsive, nurturing interactions infants and toddlers need to develop healthy, long-term selves. Too many infants and toddlers are deprived of a nurturing, responsive environment that positively shapes developing brains and bodies, and is instead exposed to early adversity that suppresses optimal growth and development.
No one temperament type is necessarily good or bad, however, children with challenging temperaments are more likely to have emotional problems than other children, particularly if the mother is a depressed or anxious caretaker (Garthus-Nigel et al., 2017). On the flip side, researchers are discovering how emphasizing the physical touch between babies and parents can be beneficial for both, and how consistently engaging with babies emotionally may accelerate their development and recognition of their own identities. We have known for a while that having a lot of skin-to-skin contact with your little ones is essential for their development.
Consistent with previous findings on the importance of neurobiological well-being and postnatal timing between mothers and babies (Carter, 2014; Feldman, 2015; Mooney-Leber and Brummelte, 2017), our findings suggest that a positive birth experience can increase maternal mood after delivery as well as mothers perceptions of the infant's first temperament, encouraging happier, more fulfilling relationships in both. Indeed, our findings suggest that a mother's subjective responses to birth influence her perceptions of the infant's behavior more than the objective physiological experience. Although the mother's contentment with birth, including operative delivery experiences and care received by mothers, is highly relevant, we were particularly interested in the wider potential effects that the mother's physiological and psychological responses to her pregnancy, delivery, and postnatal experiences have on her infant.
The purpose of the present study was to explore how mother's physical and psychological experiences with pregnancy, delivery, and early postnatal time might relate to mothers' beliefs about their infant's behavior, taking into consideration wider demographic factors for mothers, postnatal emotions, and personalities. These findings further support current recommendations from the World Health Organizations Intrapartum Guidelines (2018) about the importance of making birth a positive experience for women. Show Source Texts
Mothers also perceived their babies to be more alert-responsive (beta = 0.080, P = 0.010) and easier to care for in general (beta = 0.085, P = 0.008) following the supported birth experience. For instance, the age of the infant (Beta = 0.440, p = 0.000) was the most significant predictor of Alert-Responsive behaviour in the infant, followed by maternal positive postnatal experiences (Beta = 0.181, p = 0.000).
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