Predictable Behavior Patterns for Self-Attachment by Rachel Myr

Predictable Behavior Patterns for Self-Attachment

by Rachel Myr, Midwife, IBCLC, working in Kristiansand, Norway

[This is a response to the information in Observations on Skin-to-Skin Contact also on this site.]

Nikki Lee describes the behavior of babies when placed skin-to-skin with mother (after a floundering start, I think). This is a more accentuated version of the normal human infant behavior if left alone on mother's chest/abdomen immediately after birth. Some babies don't cry at all; most cry some. They may not be well flexed at shoulders, elbows, knees and hips at the moment of birth, but they quickly adopt a flexed position, either during or just after that first cry. They bring hands to mouth. They extend their arms and if they brush past a nipple they will open up their hands and grab it, squeezing it unconsciously for a time. Then the hands go back to the mouth, and the light bulb goes on over the head. They either turn toward the breast and squint at it intently, or move toward it with their entire body. Sometimes they just curl up on the breast, embracing it, and sometimes they bob along and latch right on, and then they are there to stay.

Babies who have been separated seem to cry more, though I have also observed some of the clearest smiles I have ever seen in a baby, and on two occasions, GIGGLES, from babies less than 36 hours old, on being reunited with their mothers.

I have my own theory about what the baby is trying to tell us with that post-separation crying, and if possible I prepare mother for the crying that usually comes in these situations. I think they recognize the smell and sound of mother, after missing her for whatever reason, which must arouse a primal angst we can barely begin to imagine. This is the first time they have felt safe enough to let out all that angst - they need to tell her about it before they can move on. So far I haven't seen a baby who doesn't settle in reasonably short order on being placed skin to skin, but without that 'anticipatory guidance' I think it is much scarier for mothers, and for anyone else who may be present.

All this is magnified if the baby has been traumatized by misguided efforts to force them to the breast. Again, skin to skin works wonders. No gadgets! No time limits! Only great feelings and massive endorphin/oxytocin release in mother and baby!!

Tomorrow I am seeing a family who had this kind of skin to skin experience. The breastfeeding isn't perfect yet; milk supply is fine, though, and baby is getting plenty of milk. After three days of various staff pressuring and cajoling him to breast, with unswervingly miserable results, we started skin to skin therapy (and I do mean therapy). "We have a new baby!" the mother reported the next morning when I got to work. "I felt like the baby who was crying and crying just wasn't the contented baby I carried inside my belly. But he's back now!"

Skin to skin is not a quick fix; often it is the ONLY fix. There are some things you can't take shortcuts on. Raising children and baking bread are the two main ones, in my opinion. But the process is so rich in both cases, why would you want it to be over sooner?

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