September 15, 2010
 

WHAT DOES LOVE HAVE TO DO WITH IT?

Do you remember when you first met your spouse?  Then when you realized you were falling in love?  Wasn’t the feeling wonderful?  Didn’t you think you could do anything and all you really wanted to do was be with the object of your love?  There are three stages of love described in Why we Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love.  The author Helen Fisher distills it down to hormones that drive your feelings and behavior through the stages of lust, attraction and attachment.  Oxytocin is released by your pituitary gland.  It was been called the “pair bonding hormone, the “cuddle hormone and the “love hormone”.

What does this have to do with your new baby?  If hormones drive romantic love by the release of oxytocin then when that same hormone will stimulate mother love and so much more.  He has found that breast feeding becomes established more quickly.  The infant’s temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate all stabilize without interventions.  Skin to skin contact with your infant also encourages the release of oxytocin promotes the release of breast milk and encourages human bonding? 

If the newborn is left on the mother’s abdomen immediately after birth, she will do what I call “the pub crawl” moving ever so slowly to your breast and will latch on perfectly to your breast.  Isn’t that amazing?  You never have to worry about whether you have her in the right position.  Your baby will do it effortlessly. 

Nils Bergman, a researcher in South Africa, found that:

·         The infant experiences greater oxygenation to his brain, hands and legs

·         A drop in glucocorticoids – stress hormones

·         An increase in temperature

·         Elicits care giving and protective behaviors in mother

·         Immunity is improved

·         Babies cry less when in skin to skin contact

·         Babies sleep longer and more soundly

·         Nutritional is exactly right for your baby

·         Stabilization of the infant’s blood sugar

·         Helps uterus return to its normal state.

·         Helps in loosing baby weight.

Believe it or not Kangaroo Mother Care actually saved a baby’s life.  Go to www.kangaroomothercare.com.  To learn more about this life giving, lifesaving method of caring for your newborn.  

April 1, 2010
I have finally decided to commit the time and effort needed to maintain a blog. I have resisted blogging for two years. Blogging is especially difficult for me. I have never been able to edit my own work. I see what I want to see on the page rather than what is actually on that page. So I apologize ahead of time for incomplete sentences, misspellings (even with spell check), dangling participles, inappropriate punctuation and any of grammatical or an interrupted thought flow in this blog. I write like I talk. The problem with that style is you can’t hear the inflection of my voice. I finally decided to cast those problems aside and just go for it. I am going to talk about sleep over the next two weeks because that and eating are the biggest issue with new parents. I always kid the parents I work with by assuring them the second baby is much smarter.
I am getting more and more calls from mothers who are sleep deprived and just want their babies to sleep at night.  The mothers just want to know want to know what to do to help their infants sleep for longer periods of time so they can get some sleep. I have been studying sleep since a 1975 paper I wrote for Psychology 101. I was most interested at the time on the effects of sleep deprivation on nurses and doctors working 12 to 16 hour shifts. As in most fields of medicine, our understanding of sleep, its effects on our body and the effects of sleep deprivation. 
I always visit new families on their first day home. I always encourage them to have a doula or baby nurse stay the first night. That first night home is an “aha” moment when parents realize this little baby is real and they are totally responsible for him/her. Then they panic and forget everything they learned in their pre-natal and hospital classes. If I am that person, I tell the family is anyone is up beside me and the baby I am going home. Some ground rules for that first night include:
1.    Dad and other guests must sleep in another room so he can get a full night’s sleep. 
2.    The baby and I must be some place (usually downstairs is it is a multiple level home) where Mom can’t hear the baby crying.
3.    If the Mom is breast feeding she should pump at least once during the night to increase milk production
4.    Naps are critical during the day so I encourage the caregiver to help make them happen (The caregiver can care for the baby during the day while the mother naps)
5.    Nourishment including water is essential to assuring the mother will function at a peak level during the initial postpartum period. (have snacks and water available)
 
Once the first night is over, the long sleepless period begins. During the first month your baby should be eating approximately every two to three hours. So you will be sleep in fits and spurts. It is generally recommended that you wake the baby to eat at night until the baby has regained their birth weight. After the baby has gained the birth weight back, many of the experts in the field recommend waking the baby at least every four hours to feed at night. Lots of important work is going on in the baby’s body and all that work needs nourishment. The baby’s body also needs to sleep so that work can continue. The parents are responsible for healthy eating and good sleep hygiene until the children are 18 and then they become junk food junkies and nocturnal animals. The parents are effectively out of control.
 
My experience as a mother and grandmother is that if you start out with nutritional foods and good sleep habit the children will eventually return to them. It is also important to teach as you do. When I am working with parents, I always talk out loud about what I am doing with the babies and why I am doing it. I do that so the parents can learn and ask questions. That is exactly what the parent can do when teaching healthy sleep habits. Tell the child why they are going to sleep and what that sleep means to their body and brain. Even when the baby is little you can begin telling them what you are doing and why so that in the future they can hear your voice prompting them to continue the habits learned in childhood.
 
One grandmother’s experience:   I am continually amazed at the growth and development of my three grandsons. I think music, art, poetry and books are life’s essential right along with food and sleep. To model that value, I always ask what the boys are currently reading, and what music is on their iPod. I also have season tickets to the National Symphony’s children’s program.  We recently went to see Peter and the Wolf.
One of my grandsons slumped over the rail and chair as if the symphony was the most boring experience he ever was subjected to. Two weeks later on a Sunday visit, he remembered the music and played the part on the clarinet he heard at the symphony. Yes!! Those tickets were not wasted after all.
 
So the more you talk to your baby the more that baby and child will remember and establish positive sleep associations. 
 
If you have a fussy inconsolable baby read Colic Solved by Bryan Vartabedian or give me a call.