Study suggests that exclusive breastfeeding diffuses the intergenerational transmission of risk for infants born to mothers exposed to intimate partner violence. Women in this situation during pregnancy would benefit not only from psychosocial support, but also from specific breastfeeding support, as this can have major personal and public health benefits. A study from Nôtre Dame…
Giving birth physiologically is an intense and transformative psychological experience that generates a sense of empowerment. The benefits of this process can be maximized through physical, emotional and social support for women, enhancing their belief in their ability to birth and not disturbing physiology unless it is necessary. By Ibone Olza, MD, PhD, perinatal…
Studies have shown that adolescents and adults who were born prematurely have poorer social abilities. However, there were no studies that relate these results to the type of care they received while in the neonatal intensive care unit. The study we want to share shows, once more, the importance of skin to skin contact, as…
A recent study from the University of Louisiana (summarized below) has discovered that some mothers with postpartum depression have an “altered expression of oxytocin receptors”. Oxytocin is the hormone of love, human connection and wellbeing; it is produced at high levels during birth and breastfeeding and it is intimately involved in the mother-infant bond, as…
Some dyads (mother-infant pair) start their breastfeeding relationship in harsh circumstances. Frequently, due to medicalized births and unfavorable hospital routines, there are so many interferences to initiate breastfeeding that by the time mother and baby arrive home they are already using bottles and formula – despite mother having desired to exclusively breastfeed. These mothers often…
In many women’s minds, birth and epidural go together. But how many of us are conscious of the impact of this routine intervention on birth and the days that follow? According to Dr Sarah Buckley, author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering, its effects can significantly alter birth progression and have an impact on the woman´s…
What baby expects after birth is to breastfeed, at mother´s breast. So if a mother is going to bottlefeed, it should feel to the baby as much as breastfeeding as possible. In modern western culture, there is no substitute for a breastfeeding mother [1]. But anyone can feed the baby with a bottle. There are…
During the 19th century, more than half of all infants who were left in orphanages died during their first year of lifefrom a condition then called marasmus, a word derived from Greek, meaning consumption. This illness was also known as infantile weakness or atrophy. As late as 1920´s, the death rate of infants of…
