Newborns have a series of highly conserved neuroendcrine behaviours that we see as the “breast-crawl”, when babies placed skin to skin on their mothers immadiately after birth crawl to the breast, attach and suckle. This behaviour has been called Widström’s 9 Stages of Newborn Behavior. A recent study by Widstrom´s group found a strong inverse…
Brains of mothers and their babies synchronize more easily when mother is happy, according to a new study from Cambridge University. Researchers discovered that the brains of a mother and her infant form a megaweb where brainwaves align, which permits better connection and empathy. But the level of connectivity is dependent on mother´s emotional state.…
By Carmela Baeza, MD, IBCLC My teenage daughter is not feeling well. She´s been running a fever for the last couple of days – possibly the flu. Tonight, around four a.m., I woke up because I heard her calling. She walked into our bedroom, crying softly, kneeled by my side of the bed, and said…
Read this post in the context of the hypersexualization of girls, early puberty (and other problems), a very brief childhood (and getting briefer) and a generalized discontent with one´s image in adolescence, which hurts self-esteem and makes them vulnerable. In the past years, companies have put a new style of dolls in the market, with…
The neurobiology of birth has one purpose: to create a caring bond between the mother and her infant. Nature does not only seek to secure the survival of the young human, but to gain maximum emotional, social and physical fitness. If there is something all new parents find out it is that their infant´s heads…
by Ibone Olza, MD, infant psychiatrist. Last week Arno Stern invited me to his workshop in Paris: the Closlieu. Since I left there at 11 pm and began to stroll along the Montparnasse under the drizzling rain, my brain has been searching for the words to write this blog entry. It is not simple. Perhaps…
By Ibone Olza, MD, PhD, perinatal psychiatrist Babies feel, listen, perceive, know, understand, are moved, express, communicate. Babies love. They give. Give smiles, caresses, gazes, babbles. They gift us. They move us. They fill us. Babies are a transforming presence for those that love, care, and live with them. However, the modern world denies…
By Esther Ramírez Matos, perinatal psychologist and family therapist My body spoke to me again, last night while I was calmly reading a novel about maternity. As a traumatic birth was described, after which mother and infant were separated, I felt an intense pain in my pelvic area; I had not been so uncomfortable in…
The quality of mother–child interactions is central in the social and emotional development of the child. It is the process by which infants are initiated into the social world. But interactions need time and space – they requiere mother and infant to be together. A recent study by Plotka, R. & Busch-Rossnagel…
We are proud to announce that the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE) has awarded our Breastfeeding and Mental Health Online Training course with 57 CERPs. Breastfeeding is a fundamental part of the psychological and health processes inherent to maternity, and is intimately tied to maternal and infant physical and emotional wellbeing, as well…
