Mother-Baby Bonding at Birth

On page 39 of his book, "The Caesarean", Michel Odent asks the question:

"Why do all societies ritually disturb the first contact between mother and baby?"

http://www.amazon.com/Caesarean-Michel-Odent/dp/1853437182 This is an important question for mothers. As mothers, we need to arrange our labour and birth in such a way that our first meeting with our baby is sacred and safe. We carry our babies for months and we long for the moment of birth. We want to hold our babies in our arms and introduce them to our world. We want the moment to be precious and guarded.

When a woman becomes a mother, tremendous changes happen within her and she's forever changed. On page 39 of "The Caesarean", Michel Odent also writes that the love hormones (oxytocin and prolactin)

"can be extremely high if the place is warm enough, if the eye-to-eye and skin-to-skin contacts between mother and baby are not disturbed, and if the sense of smell of both of them are not distracted by aggressive odours."

For the sake of our society, we must do whatever we can to help first-time moms and all moms have good birth experiences. It is so important that the mother-baby bonding time happen naturally. http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/T101100.asp

Frederick Leboyer gives some excellent ideas in his book "Birth Without Violence". http://www.amazon.com/dp/0892819839/ref%3Dasc_df_08928198391139734/%3Ftag%3Daskcomel-20%26creative%3D380333%26creativeASIN%3D0892819839%26linkCode%3Dasn He is the founder of the Leboyer Baths for new babies. As our baby was being born, I made sure that the lights were dimmed, the staff were hushed, the door was closed, soft music was playing and the odours were subdued. I held our precious baby in the birthing tank with umbilical cord still attached. It was a tremendous experience compared to my previous cesarean. http://www.waterbirth.org There is so much that mothers can do to bring about a satisfying birth experience. I truly believe that birthing babies is as important to women as an occupation is to men. We need to protect our labour and delivery so that we remember it well and we can avoid post-partum difficulties and childbirth trauma. http://www.solaceformothers.org Our children are so worth it.

Michelle is an author and entrepreneur for a continuing education and business development company showing people how to build business success. Find out more by calling 1-800-719-8268 ext. 45455 or visiting http://www.timewithmama.com Feel free to contact Michelle at timewithmama@shaw.ca She looks forward to hearing from you.