Simply place your newborn on your bare chest as soon as possible after birth. It is also possible to practice skin-to-skin or ‘kangaroo care’ if you have had a c-section (whether emergency or elective) and baby is well.

Moms, you can include dad by having him do skin-to-skin with your newborn as well.

Paediatric Nutritionist and Pampers Institute Member, Claire McHugh, explains the benefits this has for your baby’s development.

Helpful advice and tips from the Pampers® Institute are available at www.Pampers.co.za and on www.youtube.com/PampersZA Receive emails with information tailored to your baby’s age by subscribing at www.Pampers.co.za/registration and connect with us at www.facebook.com/PampersSA

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The web defines attachment parenting as an approach to raising infants that aims to promote a close relationship between the baby and its parents by methods such as feeding on demand and letting the baby sleep with its parents.

Attachment not a list of rules

Attachment parenting is based on the attachment theory which basically focuses on making a child feel safe, secure and protected.

Attachment is where the child uses the primary caregiver as a secure base from which to explore and, when necessary, as a haven of safety and a source of comfort.

It is an approach to bring up your child that promotes a secure attachment bond between parents and their children. It is not a list of rules, but more a philosophy.

Many people mistake attachment with bonding (which is the skin-to-skin contact during early critical period).

Attachment parenting focuses on the nurturing connection that parents can develop with their children. That nurturing connection is viewed as the ideal way to raise secure, independent, and empathetic children. They also say that even though there are ‘methods’ to apply, how it’s applied is ultimately open to interpretation.

People therefore define it as more of a mindset than a method.

Fundamentals of attachment parenting

Attachment parenting.org describes the following eight principles of attachment parenting:

1. Prepare for pregnancy, childbirth  and parenting.
2. Feed with love and respect. Breastfeeding a baby is definitely the best option, if you can. If you bottle feed, you can still connect with your child just as well as if you’ve breastfed.While breast milk is healthier, breastfeeding is not something that you have to do to “attach” better.
3. Respond with sensitivity.
4. Provide a nurturing touch BUT not if it interferes with something your baby is learning or it’s actually done in such an excessive manner that it’s more annoying to baby, than actually adding value to the attachment theory. For example, if babies sleep, they do not want to be touched the whole time, they need to learn to self-sooth and to be comfortable in their own skins. Nurturing touch has is place, but not all the time. Anything excessive, will become a problem later in life.
5. Ensure safe sleep – whether you are an attachment parent or not, it is very important that safety should be your first priority and there is a lot of scientific proof that co-sleeping is not the safest way to sleep.
6. Use consistent and loving care.
7. Practice positive discipline and strive for personal and family balance. All members of the family have equal value. Parents need balance between their parenting role and their personal life in order to continue having the energy and motivation to maintain a healthy relationship and to model healthy lifestyles for their children.

Advocates and those against Attachment Parenting

Advocates:

• Mostly stay-at-home moms (it’s just not possible to follow most of the Attachment Parenting theory if you are working)
• Dr William Sears – paediatrician who made Attachment Parenting famous
• Feminists

Non-Supporters:

• Cry-it-out method followers

• People who actually believe that their whole family needs to sleep well

Whether you will label yourself as an attachment parent or not, we do believe that “extremism” in which ever way is not good when it comes to our children. Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty or bad about how you raise your children. You are the best parent for your child and should do what you feel comfortable with.

About the Author: Good Night is a child and baby sleep consultancy that specialises in helping parents with children who struggle to sleep soundly. For more information, visit: www.goodnightbaby.co.za

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About four million babies die each year in the first week of life, according to The Lancet; replicating the protective and nourishing environment of a Kangaroo pouch, through Kangaroo Mother Care, could help 25% survive, says Dr Nils Bergman, a public health physician specialising in Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) in South Africa.

“The very best environment for a baby to grow and thrive, is the mother’s body,” says Dr Bergman. “When placed skin-to-skin on her mother’s chest, a baby receives warmth, protection and food, and its brain can develop optimally.”

Three components to Kangaroo Mother Care

“Skin-to-skin contact should ideally start at birth, but is helpful at any time. It should be continuous day and night, but must be at least one hour to give benefit,” says Dr Bergman.

The next part of Kangaroo Mother Care is exclusive breastfeeding. That means that for an average mother, direct suckling by the baby from the breasts is all that is needed.  For very premature babies, expressing milk and addition of some essential nutrients may be necessary.

Thirdly: support to the mother-child dyad means that whatever is needed for the medical, emotional, psychological and physical wellbeing of mother and baby is provided to them, without separating them. This might mean adding ultramodern equipment if available, or intense psychological support in contexts with no resources. It can even mean going home very early.

The power of touch

In the past, parents of premature babies were excluded from care directly after birth, including the neonatal ICU. Now, it’s known that separation causes harm to all babies – especially preterm infants.

Recent science shows that parents’ presence has a positive influence on brain development, says Jill Bergman, who has promoted Kangaroo Mother Care for 24 years. “We are realising more and more from neuroscience that the parent as central to the healthcare team is not just essential for survival, it ensures a good start to life,” she says.

Processes optimised when baby stays in contact with mother

1. Regulation

The baby at birth is wide-awake for the first 60-90 minutes and experiencing certain sensations. He hears mom’s familiar voice, feels her heartbeat, smells the familiar scent of her and her breast milk. The baby feels safe and comforted by these sensory signs and so his body calms.

Heart rate, breathing and oxygen saturation, blood pressure and temperature all stabilise far faster on mom than when they are separated. Baby has his basic needs for warmth, food and protection met.

2. Bonding and attachment

Baby’s brain also calms, and all of the expected sensations are collected and fire pathways in the brain. The baby will feel safe and open his eyes to make contact with his mother. This is the start of early bonding, and emotional and social intelligence. As continued contact and breastfeeding continues, a secure attachment is formed, which is the basis of all future physical and psychological health.

3. Breastfeeding

“A baby in the right place is very competent!” says Jill Bergman. A proper latch ensures adequate nutrition, and stimulation of all of the essential hormones. The mother’s chest will warm automatically if her baby is cold, and even cool baby if too warm.

4. Sleep

During quiet sleep, all of these sensations collected will fire and wire circuits to the emotional brain (amygdala), be organised and sent back to the cortex when he wakes again, thus completing the brain circuits for healthy development. Sleep should not be disturbed.

Don’t cry for me

If a baby is separated from her mother early on, all those essential processes are disturbed and a stress response is created. When the baby cries, his heart rate and blood pressure goes up, and oxygen levels go down. The baby crying uses up more calories so is more likely to become hypoglycaemic; these calories are better used for growth.

“High levels of stress hormones for long periods of time are toxic to the neurons that make the brain work. The stress hormone cortisol makes more neurons die off at a faster rate. This disrupts and disturbs developing pathways and circuits. With prolonged stress after birth, the brain is measurably smaller one year later. The only difference between toxic and tolerable stress is the absence or presence of mother or father,” says Jill.

Kangaroo Mother Care babies benefit from better brain and emotional development, less stress, less crying, fewer brain bleeds, more settled sleep. They are more alert when awake and feel less pain from injections, the heart rate stabilises, more breast milk is produced and babies gain weight faster.

Ultimately babies can go home earlier when they have done Kangaroo Mother Care and have better brain and emotional development.

How to do Kangaroo Mother Care

Your baby only needs a nappy and cap. Put her on your bare skin – starting at birth – facing you, inside your shirt. Sit in a chair with cushions so you can be at a 30-40 degree angle to help baby’s breathing. Tuck her legs up in the foetal position. Put her hands near her face for self-soothing. Cover her and yourself. Your body will automatically warm up if your baby is cold or will cool down if your baby is hot. Relax, knowing that your body is the best place for her.

To do this for long periods with a small or premature baby, safe technique requires that the airway is secured, and the baby firmly wrapped against parent’s chest. In this way baby and parents can both sleep. When awake and feeding, the wrapper is loosened, allowing eye contact, and access to the breast.

For more details see the book Hold Your Prem by the Bergmans and www.kangaroomothercare.com

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