When your baby is born, one of the first few things that he becomes aware of is touch. As he grows, your little one uses touch as a means of communication to indicate his needs and wants. Read on to know more.
What makes touch so important?
Holding your baby close offers health benefits both for your baby and you. Here’s what you can expect:
- Calming your baby: At birth itself, doctors the world over encourage the new mother to hold the baby close, often placing the newborn on his mother’s stomach. Skin-to-skin contact is crucial for your baby to feel calm and comforted. The birthing process is traumatic for a baby and cuddling him close soon after provides some much-needed reassurance.
- Your baby’s overall well-being: Holding your baby close improves oxygen levels and destresses him. It has also been known to reduce crying and help with establishing breastfeeding, thereby taking care of his mental and emotional well-being. Breastfeeding while natural has to be learned by the baby. Allowing him skin-to-skin contact boosts his sensory perception, thereby helping to establish nursing.
- Benefits for you, as the mother: As a new mother, you can look forward to regulated blood pressure and hormone levels. Holding your baby close releases oxytocin, also known as the ‘love hormone’. What could be better than that to build an everlasting bond with your little one!
- Providing your baby with warmth: Your baby needs warmth because a newborn isn’t able to effectively regulate his body temperature. Holding him close helps with this, and also provides the comforting sound of your heartbeat, something that your baby is familiar with from when he was in utero. Additionally, your baby’s blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and respiratory rate also stabilise.
- Boosting your baby’s immunity: While in the womb, your baby’s immunity starts to build and continues to develop once he is born. Offering your baby skin-to-skin time brings him in touch with the bacteria on your skin, thereby boosting his immunity. Over the long run, this can protect your little one against a host of medical conditions. It could likely help your baby ward off allergies and other infections as well.
- Promotes brain development: At birth, your baby’s brain is working to establish neural pathways or a connection between the neurons in the brain. This helps to promote memory formation as well as enhance emotional learning in your baby as he grows. Cuddling your baby close promotes this crucial activity.
- Establishing a sleep routine: Sleep is essential to brain development, and holding your baby close regularly helps him settle into a quiet, less disturbed sleep. This, in turn, helps the baby grow and meet developmental milestones, both at the newborn stage and over time.
The bottom line
While treasuring the first cuddle with your newborn may seem a simple thing, the benefits it offers go far beyond the ordinary. Helping your baby adapt to life outside the womb, this creates a bond between you and your baby that will last lifelong.
