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That first look

19/10/2016

That first look

Some Mothers remember it perfectly, others can't remember it at all, but according to the experts, the first time a mother and child look at each other is a moment of fundamental importance for both.

Recent studies have demonstrated that there is profound link between the first time a mother and a newborn look at each other and the love they spontaneously feel for each other: this love strengthens the emotional bond on which all the emotional ties the child experiences throughout its lifetime will be modelled, and will affect its ability to love and connect with others.

After decades during which a purely medical approach was used at birth and the first months of an infant's life, the theories and studies of paediatricians and neonatologists such as Marshall Klaus, Lorenzo Braibanti, Michel Odent and Frédérick Leboyer, who are the pioneers of birth without violence and breastfeeding, are today being applied more and more frequently.

If you watch a video of a mother giving birth, you will see that the mother's strongest instinct is to look at her baby when it is born in order to complete the picture of how she imaged her child during pregnancy. And although newborn infants still cannot focus, when the baby is placed on the mother's womb, it instinctively tries to crawl towards the mother's face trying to reach her breast, so as to recreate the contact that coming into the world has somehow broken.

Newborns are sensitive little beings and very responsive to what happens during this very unique moment. Mother and infant are chemically prepared by nature for this first very important meeting: for two hours after its birth the newborn has a discharge of foetal adrenaline that makes it highly receptive, and both mother and child produce a larger amount of oxytocin, the love hormone, which predisposes them to instant reciprocal emotional bonding.

We talk therefore of "imprinting" when we refer to the beginning of the relationship between mother and child immediately after birth, in that blessed moment between birth and the cutting of the umbilical cord: it is a moment filled with overlapping contradictory emotions that stir senses and rationality.

These are theories that are increasingly contaminating the protocols adopted in hospitals, where until just recently the culture of early separation prevailed, whereby the baby was immediately taken away from the mother to be visited, washed and dressed. Experience has shown that practices which respect this delicate moment and ensure skin-to-skin contact bring many benefits to both mother and child. Childbirth is all about separation, so that immediately resting the baby on the mother's womb, before cutting the umbilical cord, is fundamental in terms of: strengthening the bonding process and activating amygdala, the gland responsible for emotional behaviour; reassuring the baby, who will continue to feel its mother's heartbeat and feel that it is embraced by the mother just as it was in the uterus; maintaining the baby's optimal body temperature; favouring breastfeeding, because the baby instinctively moves towards the mother’s breast; reducing the time required to expel the placenta and the risk of haemorrhage.

According to the most recent prenatal and perinatal psychology, the first look and contact with your child are moments when love and respect produce an indelible imprint on the psychological, physical and emotional well-being of the adult your child will become, allowing him or her to enjoy well-balanced emotional ties and satisfying relationships with others.

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