Bonding with Baby
Bonding with your newborn is incredibly important as it provides your baby with the chance to foster intimate relationships and encourages a sense of security and boosts their levels of self-esteem. Interactions between a parent and a child can help with a child's communication skills and social development.
The first few minutes of life
Well done! You've made it through labour and giving birth and may feel totally exhausted now and wondering how on earth you will cope with a newborn when you just want to sleep for a week! In fact, whilst feeling tired, many new mums will also feel elated, excited and more relaxed as soon as they know their baby has been delivered safely and is finally here.
After the initial amazement of having brought a new life into the world some mums may not get the instant rush of love but this is nothing to worry about - around the time when your milk starts to flow after birth you will be producing a new hormone that should kick start the motherly feelings.
As soon as your baby is born you can begin to foster the special bond as you get to know every inch of your newborn.
First contact
As soon as your baby is born they will be placed on your chest or stomach. This skin to skin contact during the first few days can help seal the important bond you have with your newborn. Your newborn will also have the chance to recognise your smell and voice.
Breastfeeding
Within the first hours of giving birth and once your newborn has been placed on your body, you will be encouraged to try breastfeeding if your little one is interested. This level of contact between a mother and a child can help cement the bonding process and gives your newborn the chance to focus on you.
Talking to Baby
It may be a fairly one-sided conversation to start with! Talking to your baby though is vital for your baby's development. Your baby will recognise your voice and will begin to recognise the tone of your voice and will take your lead and respond to your voice intonation and infections. Talking to your baby will aid their development as they begin to recognise words and your baby will respond well to interaction that could cover anything from talking them through what you are doing when changing their nappy to describing things around you when you go out for walks.
Massage
Baby massage is a useful way to get to know your baby and has become more and more popular over the years as mothers recognise it as an important time to have one on one contact with your baby. Baby massage time is useful for interaction and bonding as well as aiding baby wellness by being able to alleviate any baby stresses.
Baby massage can be used to aid circulation and digestion and can also help stimulate growth hormones. These days there are clinics that offer baby massage by showing new mothers how best to massage baby. There are some techniques which are best used after your baby has had the 8 week checkup but gentle stroking is safe at any time. Specially formulated essential oils that are perfectly safe to use on your baby can also be used.
Go to our section on Baby Massage Spain for more information on baby massage techniques, using essential oiks with baby, download a free information guide to baby massage and oils and to find out more about baby massage classes in Spain as well as order essential oils direct from independent distributor in Spain, Michelle Julian.
Playtime with Baby
Playing helps with bonding as it provides your baby with the valuable stimulation time that will help progress, development and learning. There is an optimum time to play with your baby and this is when they are well rested and well-fed and have your full attention. Playing with baby can help stimulate your baby's senses and expose them to new ways of enjoyment and entertainment and will encourage their inquisitive side as they begin to play with their own toys, finding out what they do, the noises they make and so on.
As your baby gets older no doubt they will acquire a selection of toys which are hugely valuable learning aids and they will go from wanting to put everything in their mouth to learning about more progressive playtime.
Reading to baby
As your baby recognises your voice from their time spent in the womb, reading as in fact every form of talking to your child will be important to your baby as they grow from wanting to lust hear your voice, to gaining value in experience and learning from your reading to them. These days there is such a fantastic range of books for babies that there shouldn't be any excuse not to have a few around the house and there are also very useful bold and colourful Spanish language vocab books for babies that will also introduce Spanish words to your baby from a young age and get them used to their second language.
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