BONDING TOUCH: Many babies do not get as much physical contact or emotional engagement with care givers as they crave. An expert in the field explains how these behaviors can influence child development.
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The stark institutional isolation prevalent in the orphanages of some countries might have mostly melted away decades ago, but many babies and young children all over the world still grow up in environments where touch and emotional engagement are lacking. Many children who have not had ample physical and emotional attention are at higher risk for behavioral, emotional and social problems as they grow up.
These trends point to the lasting effects of early infancy environments and the changes that the brain undergoes during that period. Below the surface, some children from deprived surroundings such as orphanages, have vastly different hormone levels than their parent-raised peers even beyond the baby years. For instance, in Romania in the 1980s, by ages six to 12, levels of the stress hormone cortisol were still much higher in children who had lived in orphanages for more than eight months than in those who were adopted at or before the age of four months, according to a study from Development and Psychopathology. Other work has shown that children who experienced early deprivation also had different levels of oxytocin and vasopressin (hormones that have been linked to emotion and social bonding), despite having had an average of three years in a family home. "This environmental change [into a home] does not seem to have completely overridden all of the effects of early neglect," the researchers, led by Alison Wismer Fries of the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison noted in their study, published in 2005 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Myriad biological and environmental factors shape development and can be difficult to tease apart in scientific studies of children, who all have different genetic predispositions and experiences. But many stories of delayed development and troublesome behavior, such as in the seven-year-old Russian orphan who was returned by his adoptive family in the U.S. in April 2010, have spurred researchers to take an even closer look into the effects of early contact deprivation.
On the flip side, researchers have been discovering how emphasizing skin-to-skin contact between baby and parent can be a boon to both and how consistent emotional engagement with infants can speed their development and recognition of self.
What is so special about these basic behaviors that come without thinking to most parents? We spoke with Ann Bigelow, a professor and researcher of developmental psychology at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, whose lab has been conducting research into parent behavior and infant development.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
We have known for a long time that skin-to-skin contact with babies is important for their development. In what ways does it help them?
Particularly in the newborn period, it helps calm babies: they cry less and it helps them sleep better. There are some studies that show their brain development is facilitated—probably because they are calmer and sleep better.
Does skin-to-skin contact with their babies have benefits for the parents?
It seems to help the mothers, too. It reduces their stress level—they report lower levels of depression, they seem to be able to be more sensitive to their baby's cues and the babies are more responsive to the mother through the whole first three months. They're recognizing their mother earlier, so the relationship between the mother and baby is off to a facilitated start. It works the same way with fathers, too.
There is some interesting work showing that mothers who have just given birth, their skin area on their chest is a degree or two higher than the rest of their body, creating a natural warming area for the newborn. They have the ability to thermoregulate for the baby—if the baby's temperature drops, the mother's temperature rises, and if the baby's temperature rises, the mother's drops. There seems to be a connection between mother and baby from the birthing process itself.
What is happening in the body—of both parent and child—when there is skin-to-skin contact?
From the mother's perspective, it probably releases oxytocin. On the behavioral level, if you have a baby that is more relaxed and sleeping better, that's going to relax the mother more.
The newborn is coming out of a very restrictive environment, so anything that simulates that comforts them. Being touched or hearing a heartbeat is familiar because they heard it in the womb.
Aside from contact, what are some of the other early interactions between adults and infants that are important for development?
One of the things infants learn early in life is that their actions affect others' responses—they sense that they're active agents in their environment, so the world isn't just a sound and light show. They learn that probably most readily through other people because people are responsive to babies. Babies catch on very quickly that their actions get a predictable response—you know, "I smile, Mom smiles back"—not all the time but most of the time. They develop a sense that "I'm a causal agent."
There's research that shows babies like to be imitated. We interact with babies much differently than we interact with peers. We tend to imitate behavior back to them in an exaggerated way, which is exactly what babies need, and it helps them learn about their own emotional experience. Seeing it reflected back helps them understand themselves at a very basic perceptual understanding.
And do infants with mothers who are quick to imitate develop more rapidly?
Yes, and that seems to be independent of how talkative mothers are or how smiley mothers are. I think there's probably an upper limit to it. If you're just doing everything the baby does, that could be irritating, just as it would be to anyone else. Most of this stuff is done outside of the mother's awareness—this is just what they do naturally when they are playing with their baby.
At what age do babies start to recognize that they are active agents?
Babies can recognize that "you're imitating me," some say, within the first few hours. Certainly by four months, babies will respond differently if responses from mothers are a reflection of what they're currently doing.
It may also depend how responsive the mother—or the partner that the baby has experience with—is to the baby. If the mother was depressed and therefore not emotionally engaging with the baby, those babies are at risk because those babies are not learning about themselves.
Babies get used to the one person that's most familiar, so if you're with a depressed mother who has low responsiveness, those babies will be most responsive to those who are least responsive, so they're perpetuating a risk factor for themselves. There's nothing wrong with the baby; they're just responding to what they're experiencing.
A lot of these outcomes are measured by early developmental progress—do some of these differences eventually even themselves out?
For many, yes. But of course it's easier if they start out on the right track than if they have to be rectified.
The more experience babies have with someone who is going to be emotionally engaged with them, the better off they're going to be. But babies are incredibly flexible and adaptable. It's probably the most adaptable point in our lives, which is a good thing because things can turn around.
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24 Comments
Add CommentHow is "skin to skin" defined? Due to chilly rooms and such, my son was in full body cotton sleepers pretty much right from the beginning. My husband and I held him constantly for the first 6 weeks or so, but always with lots of intervening fabric. He's 5 months old now, and seems perfectly well adjusted, but I'm wondering if this article is looking at literal skin to skin.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would seem that the evolutionary benefit of the bonding process is to impart a deep caring for the child to the mother. Without successful bonding, it is the child's well being that is jeopardized by an inattentive mother. Long term, many the effects of maternal neglect must be impossible to overcome, as the effects of early development of the child cannot be undone or redone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTouch is an essential macro nutrient.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen there is a lack of physical contact with another human being, we tend to get sick and depressed.
With no touchting at all, we shrivel up and eventually die.
Just try this: stroke or hold the hand of a lonely elderly person living in a nursing home, and see their whole being lighten up!
How ironic - you have an article about the importance of skin-to-skin and on the same page folks are subjected to advertising from a formula company (that talks about the science of it of all things!!) Please check out the World Health Organization Code Against the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. Both the US and Canada are signatories. Formula feeding has been one of the main reason that skin-to-skin is not practiced anymore! In fact in some instances infants are not even held to be fed but have the bottle propped! Our governments spend millions of dollars trying to counter the pressures from formula companies to buy their products. Please reconsider from whom you take money for ads and what the consequences are.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is heartbreaking to come across a child who was not given the physical and emotional attention they needed when young. Hold your babies!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn respons to NancyN's comment about formula companies. . . At four months my daughter decided she was done with breastfeeding. She nearly knawed my nipples clean off and then just refused to nurse period. I pumped for a few months afterward but dealt with recurrent mastitis and an allergic reaction to medication that almost killed me. NancyN - sometimes formula is a lifesaver! literally!
Nancy: I read (skimmed for pertinent information) the Code you mentioned, and had a good look at the Enfamil website. Have you honestly done either? Because I honestly fail to see your point.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a practising physician I had the opportunity of realizing that babies, that most often cry very loud when you try some physical examination on them, such as hearing lung or heart noises with an sthetoscope, become calmed almost instantly if you put the palm of your hand gently on the baby's chest
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNancyN - Well, I've always presumed that mother's milk would be generally most beneficial, but I know exceptions do occur.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLooking at that ad and the persuasive bonding display methods employed by that baby, I can only wonder how women can stand to be constantly assaulted by manipulative advertising directed at your deeply embedded maternal instincts, I presume being controlled by hormonal responses in the brain? Or, are women even conscious of these manipulative efforts? I can't seem to comprehend...
Wonderfully clear and sober answers!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEvery human knows that physical touch is very important!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI like the article but am disappointed that Harry Harlow's studies in the 1950's is not mentioned. His work was pivotal in changing how we thought about touch.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhenever a baby sucks on the mother's nipple the mother produces the hormone oxytocin. If a mother puts her newborn to the nipple about six to twelve times a day the mother is getting lots of doses of oxytocin whereas the bottle feeding mother is deprived of this hormonal aid to help her care for her baby. Elsie Mobbs PhD(Syd) PO Box 36 Westmead 2145 NSW Australia
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was diagnosed with low litium levels a month ago. I was emotionally abused as a child and my mom did'nt allow anyone to touch me when I was a baby, she only touched me when I had a bath and when she changed my nappy. I have a feeling that my mental state and low litium is because of that, what do you think? I really want to do research on this. I am 40 years old and have been struggling all my life with depression.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI read an article once that described the infanthood of the unibomber (can't remember his name -- Ted something). His brother said that he was put in isolation for many months when he was a baby because of an illness. His mother wasn't even able to hold him. That could account for his antisocial behavior.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI remember an article I read about the unibomber (can't remember his name -- Ted something). His brother said that when he was a baby he was put in isolation for many months because of an illness. His mother wasn't even able to hold him. That could account for his antisocial behavior.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDidn't mean to submit that twice!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisContact is important. But I believe they can be well adjusted with or without.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a mother of 3 breast fed babies who are adults now, and doing well with children of their own; however we have adopted a female cousin who is now 14. We got her at 8 mos. but even then she was very delayed, and spent another 2 years being taken back and forth to birth mother for "family reunification" thus says Social Services. After much emotional struggle to bond and terrible anger issues I finally researched RAD, reactive attachment disorder, and there she was; descibed and explained to me, exactly as we were experiencing this child. She was so neglected that the left side of her head was flattened, and she was in the DEC developmental program through Social Services at 8 mos. My 3 were teens at the time and did much to help her 'catch up', and definately loved her. We are now in the Intensive Family Therapy program though S.S. It seems to be helping. If I had not found the research on RAD kids sadly she may have been in a 24/7 home for toubled children by now. There is an amazing difference in the ability to connect, love, and trust in a child who was secure in the first months, and one who learned a whole different set of responses from their first encounter with this environment. We pray and will always press towards the heart of this childs reality to bring her into our love.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi have 2 brothers and a sister and one of my brothers are 1 and he loves when i play with him!!!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou are sooo rude!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi think to have a baby you need to have physical touch and you need to know how to do that for more info call...312-2213
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisare u sure about that? call me 312-2213 and well discus your issues!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyour wierd you dont know what your talking about!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSkin-to-skin is as it the name suggests. You can put a layer of fabric over the baby, like a blanket over both mom and baby. The baby is just in diapers. Mom's skin will warm or cool to help the baby stay at just the right temperature. In fact, a baby bathed in a hospital will warm up faster on mother's chest than in a warmer! It's the perfect place for a newborn/young baby to spend lots of time - help with thermoregulation, smell of mom, feel and hear heart beat (which helps with regulation). Even if it's not skin-to-skin, it's still wonderful for your baby to be held lots. But one doesn't need to worry that they'll get too cold.
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