Young Minds and Emotions 

In light of the epidemic of inner city violence that features worldwide in all of today’s modern societies many of those involved with mental health and physical wellbeing, the environment, criminal rehabilitation, politics and care in general within their communities are searching for more understanding and for ways in which this problem can be resolved.

However the importance of the fact that every human being carries with them and is influenced by their developmental history still seems to be largely overlooked.

When this developmental profile begins and to what extent this influences our lives has always been and still remains a contentious issue.

The fact that some of our deepest fears and anxieties come from our pre-natal, birth, post-natal and early childhood experiences is still a long way from being given the credence that it deserves.

Many psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists however bear witness to the revelations of patients who disclose some of the consequences of pre and perinatal disruptions.

Psychiatrist R D Laing in the 1970’s claimed that some of his patients felt their lives to have been ‘disrupted by deep unidentifiable feelings of separation and loss’ and that birth experiences such as these could be a precondition of mental illness in later adult life.

Far more recently the work of Dr Bruce Perry a neuroscientist and psychiatrist, shows that stress and deprivation during the first twelve months can inhibit a child’s capacity to empathise with other human beings. The growth of the pre frontal cortex, an area of the brain that enables us to recognise thoughts and feelings in other people, becomes stunted.

Perry claims “this is both a precursor to mental illness and a potential danger, causing such a child to see threats where there are none and to respond with violence”. Perry’s latest report claims that ‘some children can be locked into a life of crime before their first birthday’.

Pre and Perinatal Research

Recent research by Professor Vivette Glover of Imperial College London found that the babies of mothers who maintained high levels of stress during pregnancy caused by rows with or violence by a partner, were vulnerable to mental and behavioural problems like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

That the high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the amniotic fluid tallied with the damage.
Also that those babies exposed to the highest levels of cortisol during their development had lower IQs at 18 months and that these same infants were also more anxious and fearful.

However even with evidence based research spanning generations the origins of violence as being instilled in early life are still being largely ignored.

Our prisons remain full of stressed criminal personalities who are unable to find meaning in experience who suffer attention deficit disorders, are paranoid, deluded and being self medicated with alcohol and street drugs have no control over their moods and emotions.

In the last thirty years advances in prenatal and perinatal research have shone new light upon  conventional ideas of human development. Leaders in neuroscience, psychiatry, and research psychology in infant studies have revealed many undiscovered abilities of both the fetus and the newborn baby.

These findings show we are born with a far greater range of potential than was previously recognized. That babies are more sensitive, cognitive and emotional than was previously thought.

That far from being devoid of feeling, newborn babies are exquisitely sensitive and that life in the womb is extremely active and interactive and a place of learning.

At various stages in the womb a baby will frown, smile, squint and cry. She will listen and can hear clearly and at times she will move her body in rhythm to her mother’s voice,

Birth

From birth onwards the biological unity maintained by the mother and child throughout pregnancy does not stop but remains just as intensively functional and mutually involving.

During birth the mother’s uterine contractions that serve to push the baby out into the world, also stimulate all the major systems the baby needs for survival in the world outside of the womb

For the baby the natural birth process is the equivalent of the strongest massage they are likely to receive during the course of a lifetime and the depth of these contractions and the length of time through which they are applied, constitute a profound introduction to the benefits of baby massage.

The importance of this kind of stimulation is made clear from recorded observations which show that when the baby is inadequately stimulated during birth a failure of activation can occur in principle organs.

In elective caesarean births for example, where birth takes place without labour, paediatricians record babies as having ‘greater lethargy, decreased reactivity and less frequent crying’. Overall the  birth caesarean mortality rate from the respiratory disorder, hyaline membrane disease is more frequent and respiratory and digestive disorders are also more prevalent.

Biochemical differences are also seen the most significant being the glucagon factor which relates to the production of sugar in newborn babies. Without labour, as in elective caesarean, this response  is diminished, where labour has occurred as in an emergency caesarean this response remains normal.

From birth on the baby’s need for bodily contact is compelling and if that need is not adequately satisfied, even though all other needs are, he or she will suffer. The baby’s first contact with this world and life that goes on around them comes through their sense of touch. Touch ensures contact with reality until all other senses are fully developed.
 
The power of this is far more than just skin deep, touch brings about a number of physical  and physiological changes and these changes are measurable in emotional, neural, glandular, biochemical, muscular and cutaneous changes on the surface of the skin

Following birth the baby remains connected to their mother, her womb still supporting her baby, the placenta giving blood and oxygen through the umbilical cord until the baby is ready to breathe independently.

Now breathing independently skin to skin contact between mother and child is the first language the baby understands and the one he or she will respond to the most.

Mother and Child Relationship

Limbic regulation is the term used for a mutually synchronizing hormonal exchange between a mother and her child which serves to regulate the baby’s vital rhythms.

This regulatory information required by infants can alter hormone levels, cardiovascular function, sleep rhythms, immune function, and more.

With babies limbic regulation shows itself to be interdependent upon skin to skin contact with the mother, at times her regulatory processes being vital to the maintenance of her baby's physical and emotional health.

In premature babies for example, it’s been shown that the temperature of a baby in an incubator, even though the incubator remains warm, can be a whole degree lower than the temperature of a baby in skin to skin contact with his mother.

When placed with their mother, skin to skin contact stimulates the mother’s temperature to rise a whole degree in order to raise her baby’s temperature, or similarly will drop if her baby’s temperature needs to be lower.
This mother and child interaction is known as ‘thermal synchrony’.

Similarly a breathing dysfunction known as ‘periodic breathing’ long thought to be normal among premature babies removed from their mothers, disappears immediately the baby is placed back in his mother’s arms.

The rhythm of a baby’s heartbeat also fluctuates greatly when removed from their mother but again as soon as the baby is returned to her mother’s arms the baby’s heartbeat becomes regular again.

Even sleep rhythms have been shown to be more synchronized when the mother and her baby have consistent bodily contact.

Elevated stress levels are known to be behind the irregularities that occur when a mother and her baby are separated and this is always bad for babies.

It is stress that is responsible for most crime, accidents, illnesses (including cancers) and breakdowns in family relationships.

The rise in anti social behaviour now prevalent throughout many inner cities could well have its roots in the way children are treated during the first twelve months of life.

Touch and Touching

In countries where the vast majority of babies are born in hospitals and a quarter of these are surgically delivered, it is vital that the many babies born in this way, are delivered by obstetricians who are aware of the lasting impressions that can result from the manner in which babies are delivered and treated at birth.

Parents also should be made more aware that from this time on the skills and patterns that we introduce into parenting can have a lasting effect upon our children.

As the largest single sensory organ of the body the tactile system or sense of touch, is the earliest sensory system to become functional in all living species so far studied. Response to touch can be seen from at least 7 weeks from conception and as the nervous system develops the range and sophistication of responses develop accordingly.

This begins with the lips and ends with the legs and feet, and one of the most striking findings in infant research, is the extent to which developmental progress during the first twelve months is influenced by maternal deprivation and primarily a lack of touch.

From 1248 when historians wrote ‘these children could not live without petting’ to more recent revelations on the state of destitute babies abandoned in Romanian orphanages, just some of the  consequences of failing to satisfy the tactile needs of a baby have been recorded as; Deep pallor, loss of skin tone, serious retardation of physical and emotional development and death. That ‘they cry easily, sleep poorly, eat poorly and are all susceptible to weight loss and infection.

Of all mammals human babies are the least developed at birth and because of this, the first two months of life can be seen as a direct continuation of an intra-uterine state with a biological need for continual close body contact with the mother.

This means mother and child should not be separated and that the baby needs to be held, stroked, rubbed, rocked, talked to, reassured and comforted, until they have gathered their senses in, what is for them, a new and unfamiliar environment.

A baby’s first contact with this world and the life that goes on around them comes through their sense of touch. It is touch that ensures our contact with reality until all our other senses are fully developed and integrated.

The skin to skin contact between mother and child is the baby’s first language, the one he or she understands and will respond to the most.

Skin to skin contact is the principle regulator of broodiness and the more the mother holds and strokes her new baby, the more her maternal instincts are aroused.

According to Dr Bruce D. Perry, Senior Fellow of the Child Trauma Academy, from this time onwards and through the early years, is a period where we are able to increase a child’s ability to be responsible, caring, and creative.

Various studies make evident that from birth on the tactile needs of a baby must be met and although the need for skin stimulation and body contact goes on throughout life, it is at its most intense and crucial during reflex attachment and the preverbal period.

Prolonged touching and stroking and skin to skin contact throughout the postnatal period results in prolonged breastfeeding and more affectionate behaviour between mother and child.

The baby’s muscles are organs of power and sensation and they respond to touch and will contract in response to pain and relax in response to pleasure.

Muscular Armouring 

The baby’s muscles also retain impressions and in the event of a traumatic experience or repeated trauma, the affected muscles will tighten to inhibit pain. If the trauma is severe or repetitive the affected muscle groups retain an impression of the experience's and then  become hypertense.

To breathe little is to feel less and  to find relief against physical and emotional pain, babies will withhold their breath and tighten their tummy muscles.

The tummy is a major emotional centre and when the tummy is held rigid the diaphragm cannot descend into the abdominal cavity and breathing becomes impaired.

The result of this is a tense tummy and an abnormal breathing pattern which reduces the supply of oxygen. This is common in most older children and almost all adults.

With the reduction of oxygen and a tight tummy, the body then begins to experience an underlying feeling of dis-ease and unless the tummy is released and relaxation and a normal breathing rhythm is restored a state of stress then becomes predominant.

Place your hand on your baby’s tummy when they are unhappy or ill at ease and it will feel like a rock. Place your hand on your baby’s tummy when they are relaxed and easy and it will feel soft and malleable.

Despite what we know invasive procedures of contemporary neonatology and obstetrics can still create many conditions that can cause babies pain. Babies born prematurely who spend time in incubators are likely to suffer from the absence of their mothers and more than normal invasive procedures.

Even a normal birth in a hospital can be a painful experience for a baby, when routine protocols involves the premature cutting of the umbilical cord and removal of the baby from the mother, wiping, washing, suctioning and weighing, all disturbing experiences for a newborn child.

Babies who do not settle easily, who cry a lot, traumatised, fractious and anxious babies and those who do not feed or conform to the daytime and night time rhythms of their parents, are far more likely to be left to ‘cry it out’ rather than being picked up and comforted.

The benefit of Baby Massage

Massage as a way of relieving trauma, both emotional and physical has been in use for as long as humans have been in existence.

Only movement can restore movement and when babies and young children show signs of stress, their tension and anxiety can be relieved through massage and movement.

Stiff joints can be loosened, tummies relaxed and some areas of developmental delay can be addressed. All normal aspects of development can be encouraged together with closer more tactile family relationships.

 ‘Of all things the physician should be good at rubbing for rubbing can loosen a joint that is too tight and tighten a joint that is too loose’ - ‘Good health is a good bodily feeling’  Corpus Hippocraticum

Hippocrates father of Western medicine

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