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What Babies Know & All Mothers Need to Know

Babies know touch

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Where touching begins there love and humanity also begin, within the first minutes following birth. It is through body contact with their mother that the baby makes their first contact with this world, and it's body contact that provides the vital source of warmth and comfort'.
Dr Ashley Montague

The baby's first contact with this world and the life that goes on around them comes from their sense of touch. It is touch that ensures our contact with reality until all other senses are fully developed. The skin to skin contact between a mother and her child being the baby's first language, the one that babies know, understand and will respond to the most.
Every emotion triggers a muscular response and the baby’s earliest response to touch can be seen in the womb. In all living species so far studied it is the sense of touch that develops first. With babies this starts with the lips and mouth and ends with the legs and feet, and is evident with babies in the womb from about six weeks.

The power of touch is far more than just skin deep. A good touch arouses positive feelings and brings about a number of physical and physiological changes. Every feeling is supported by a muscular reaction and more. Even people in deep coma's have shown improved heart rates when their hands have been held. Stroking, holding and caressing your child for as long and as often as you wish is now known to be physically and emotionally beneficial for both mother and child.

'We are conscious, aware, learning intensely and actively communicating and forming relationships from the beginning of life. Our earliest experiences in the womb, during birth and bonding, and as young babies profoundly shape and set in motion physical, mental, emotional and relational life patterns that can be life enhancing or diminishing'.
Wendy Anne McCarty

The first two months following birth can be seen as a continuation of the intra-uterine state with a biological need for continual close body contact with the mother. During this period especially, the baby needs to be held, rubbed, rocked, talked to and reassured.

'From birth on, the infant'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'.
Dr Frederick Leboyer

The biological unity maintained by the mother and child throughout pregnancy does not cease at birth, rather it becomes even more intensively functional and mutually involving after the birth. Prolonged touching and stroking and skin to skin contact throughout the postnatal period results in prolonged breastfeeding and more affectionate behaviour between a mother and her child.

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