Sometimes, the bond is immediate -- parents fall in love the instant they set eyes on their little "bundle of joy." Other times,
Oxytocin isn't the only chemical of love. As you hold, rock, or nurse your baby, each of you gets a rush of dopamine, the main currency of pleasure in the brain. While you're both enjoying the high, your baby's feelings for you are taking root. Again, animal studies give us an important insight into human love.
Often, bonding happens gradually over the baby's first year of life. So if you don't feel these strong feelings of closeness in the first days or weeks after birth, that's normal. Still, there are some steps you can take to help you bond with your newborn. There also are some things that can slow the process.
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 care for their little one.
Some women fall in love with their babies from the moment of birth, and some women find that their love grows slowly over the first few weeks as they get to know and care for their baby. Both are normal.
Some women really do fall in love with their newborns at first sight and others don't. There is no wrong or right way to fall in love with your baby and the last thing any new mother needs to feel is guilt over how she bonds with her baby.
In short, yes: Babies do feel love. Even though it will be quite a while before they're able to verbalize their feelings, they can and do understand emotional attachment. Affection, for example can be felt.
You and your baby may bond within a few minutes, over a few days, or a few weeks. Bonding may take longer if your baby needed intensive medical care at birth, or if you adopted your baby. Know that you can bond with your adopted baby as well as biological parents bond with their children.
Baby fever is the name for the longing that some people experience relating to the desire of having a child (or grandchild) of their own.
There are deep psychological reasons why humans find babies of all species so cute. Scientists believe that the powerful nurturing instinct we have for our own children spills over into an affection for anything that even loosely resembles them.
Emotionally absent or cold mothers can be unresponsive to their children's needs. They may act distracted and uninterested during interactions, or they could actively reject any attempts of the child to get close. They may continue acting this way with adult children.
Kissing your baby has a lot of emotional benefits. When a mother shows her baby love by kisses, hugs and the like, it shows the baby that being sensitive to others needs and feelings is important. This in turn can help them relate as well as interact better with those around them.
Babies often prefer their primary caregiver
Most babies naturally prefer the parent who's their primary caregiver, the person they count on to meet their most basic and essential needs. This is especially true after 6 months when separation anxiety starts to set in.
As early as three months, babies learn to recognize their parents or primary caregivers. And there staring is their way to communicate. Babies can't quite interact yet for the first few months, so their staring is their way of communicating with you.
During your baby's first few days of life, it's normal to feel emotional highs and lows, something commonly referred to as the "baby blues." With the baby blues, you might feel happy one minute and tearful or overwhelmed the next. You might find yourself feeling angry, sad, irritable, or discouraged.
A recent study has found that it's not the youngest child that's liked the most. It's actually the eldest! While eldest children around the world have had to be the example for their younger siblings and parents being extra strict on them, it looks like there was a good reason.
They learned that both men and women can develop it, although its intensity varies from person to person and within the same person over time. “Baby fever is normal, it varies a lot, and people don't have to feel it,” says Gary Brase, associate professor of psychology at Kansas State University.
The influx of emotions from being around a baby can spark our instincts to reproduce. This sudden impulsive urge to have a child has been coined by pop culture as “baby fever.” Many chalk up the need to procreate as our natural instinct, while others swear it is a societal construct.
One thing that seems to make a man's biological clock tick is, well, women. National studies of Finnish couples have found that baby fever in men typically arises during conscious attempts to conceive, which are often dictated by the woman's desire to have a baby. Simply put, baby fever is contagious.
When your baby gazes into your eyes when they're in your arms, it's baby's way of expressing they're attracted to you, and want to get to know you even better. Babies will try to copy your facial expressions, test it out by sticking out your tongue when baby is gazing at you, they may well copy.
Komisar says both are needed in a child's first three years, but children require much more of the sensitive and empathetic nurturing. “So the more you're with your baby, the more you're present, physically and emotionally for your baby, the less stressed that baby is and the less stressed the mother is,” Komisar said.
Bonding happens in many ways. When you look at your newborn, touch their skin, feed them, and care for them, you're bonding. Rocking your baby to sleep or stroking their back can establish your new relationship and make them feel more comfortable. When you gaze at your newborn, they will look back at you.
Studies have shown that infants as young as one month-old sense when a parent is depressed or angry and are affected by the parent's mood. Understanding that even infants are affected by adult emotions can help parents do their best in supporting their child's healthy development.
Babies not only pick up on their mother's stress, but they also show corresponding physiological changes, according to a UC San Francisco-led study.
While a baby's first attachment is often with their mother, the bonds that babies form with their fathers are just as important. Though babies form attachment relationships with other adults who care for them, the bonds with their parents are the most important ones.