Basic Holistic Baby Care

Holistic baby care differs from traditional baby care in that it takes into
account the needs of the whole child. It also trusts that nature has placed
within each child the ability to know what its needs are, to communicate
those needs, and to facilitate getting those needs met. Traditional baby
care has usually focused upon getting the child to conform to the parental
schedule or lifestyle, rather than realizing that every baby is an individual
with their own needs and orientation toward life. Holistic baby care
respects and honors the differences between children, and assists the
parent in encouraging the child toward healthy physical, emotional and
spiritual development. It helps the parent to recognize the baby's inborn
survival cues, and provides alternatives which will help the parent meet
those needs.

The first and most important need of the human baby is attachment.
Although your baby is an individual, he or she has a tremendous need to
feel safe and secure, and can only feel that way by being physically and
emotionally attached to another human being. While in the womb, your
baby sensed its attachment to you. It was physically connected to you with
the umbilical cord, and it had constant tactile stimulation, provided by the
warm amniotic fluid it was floating in, and the walls of the uterus which
hugged it securely. The baby was cradled and protected. The child could
also sense that all was well be the hormones secreted into your blood
stream which signaled a sense of satisfaction.

During the birth process, your child probably experienced some physical
and emotional stress. He or she experienced the unusual sounds of the
contracting uterus, and the possiblely unusual sounds that you as the
laboring mother felt were appropriate to the birth process. Your child was
subjected the contracting, pushing and pulling of the uterus and possible
birth trauma subjected by the birth attendants. But as the child was being
born, there was still a sense of security as it was securely wrapped in the
folds of your birth canal, and every inch of its body was massaged as it
made its passage into the world. Then, at the moment of birth, your child
was suddenly thrust out of a world where it had felt safe and secure, and
into a world where everything was new and frightening. Whereas the child
was held fairly secure inside the womb, now it is able to flail around its
arms and legs, hear its own cries reverberating through space, and be
frightened by the sights and sounds of the world around it. While in the
womb, it was held at a constantly warm temperature. Now, it is subject to
the temperature changes of the world around it. As it is carried from one
place to another, and especially when it is laid down in an open space, the
child feels afraid, for it does not sense the physical protection and
attachment which was available in the womb. It feels open, exposed and
vulnerable.

The one thing which will make all these transitions to the new world less
stressful is for your child to experience constant touch. By carrying and
holding your child, whether in arms or in a sling next to your body, you
provide that child with a constant source of security. The child feels safe
from falling and flailing around if you hold them securely, and often
wrapping them in a blanket so their arms and legs can't flail is helpful.

Studies on both animals and humans have shown that if the constant touch
of the mother is not available, the child is subject to:

Immune deficiency
Poor response to stress
Failure to thrive (gain weight properly)
Antisocial and agressive behavior
Failure to develop adequate parenting skills in the future.

Also, studies have shown these benefits in children who are touched often
or routinely massaged as part of their basic baby care:

The stimulation of weight gain in term infants

Improved sleep patterns in term infants
Better developmental skills in pre-term infants
Enhanced care giver self-esteem and feelings of bonding for fathers and
mothers who performed regular infant massage
Greater infant test scores of alertness, orientation, and responsiveness
Signs of relief from episodes of gas, constipation and colic

In short, babies benefit most from being in almost constant contact with
their mothers from the time they are born until the infants themselves
initiate separation.

Your baby will have ways of insuring that you give him or her the needed
amount of physical contact. The most powerful way to insure this is by
crying. This brings you to your baby the most quickly, because when the
baby cries, a hormone is released into the mother's blood system which
causes her to feel strongly drawn to her baby. Also, babies make cooing
sounds, initiate eye contact, and have a smell which their mothers
recognize and are drawn to. So there are many ways in which nature has
tried to assure that the baby's needs will be met.

However, today's Western society has sought to put as much distance as

possible between mother and baby. This distance is introduced from the
moment of birth. Baby is often wisked away from mother by birth
attendants in the name of performing certain physical examinations or
procedures that could actually wait until later, or be done with the child in
the mother's arms. Sometimes the child will be separated from the mother
by a mandatory period of time in the hospital nursery. Another separation
rule states that in hospitals, women cannot sleep with their babies in bed
with them, but must return them to a bassinet each night to sleep. When
mothers return home with their babies, they are told not to hold their
babies too much because they will become spoiled. They are told never to
let their babies sleep with them, to feed their babies on a schedule, and to
get them used to babysitters as early as possible. Basically, women are
told to abandon the meeting of their babies' most primal needs. But those
needs are vital to the baby's well-being, and unless a secure attachment is
formed through the meeting of the baby's physical and emotional needs,
normal and healthy development is next to impossible.

The best ways to encourage a secure attachment for baby are:

1. Connect with your baby early by giving birth in an environment which

will afford you the
opportunity to be with your baby constantly. Many women are choosing
home birth for this
reason.

2. Breastfeed your baby whenever he or she seems to need it, for hunger,
thirst, or emotional
comfort.

3. Wear your baby. Many women find that if they place their babies in a
sling next to their bodies,
the babies are more content, cry less, and the mothers can go about
their daily activities with a
minimum of interruption.

4. Share sleep with your baby. By sharing a bed and/or sleep time with
your baby, you are
assisting your baby in developing good sleep habits and helping their
biological systems to
become regulated. This includes breathing. It has been shown that
infants and parents who
 share sleep coordinate their sleep stages so that they sleep and awake
on the same cycle, and
the babies show more stable breathing patterns.

5. Read and respond to your baby's cues. When you sense that your baby
wants something, try
to meet that need quickly. Do not try to put them off as long as your
can. The more quickly
and sensitively you try to meet their need, the more they will learn to
communicate their needs
without escalating into an uncontrollable cry. It helps them learn self-
control.