06 JUL 2011 by ideonexus

 Babies Flirt

There are other reasons to think that even very young babies are especially tuned to people. Babies flirt. One of the great pleasures in life is to hold a three-month-old in your arms and talk absolute nonsense. "My, my, my," you hear your usually sane, responsible, professional voice saying, "you are a pretty bunny, aren't you, aren't you, aren't you, sweetums, aren't you a pretty bunny?" You raise your eyebrows and purse your mouth and make ridiculous faces. But the even more striking thing...
Folksonomies: motherhood babies bonding
Folksonomies: motherhood babies bonding
  1  notes

The back and forth of goo-goo eyes and cooing between mothers and their babies is a flirtatious bonding.

29 JUN 2011 by ideonexus

 The Importance of the Mother-Infant Bond

In the 1960s a slow revolution in birthing practices began in Western culture. As a result of the influence of John Bowlby's attachment theory and Harry Harlow's infant monkey experiments, the medical establishment realized the importance of physical proximity on the bonding process and babies were not necessarily removed to the nursery. The feminist movement in the 1970s, which helped women assert their wishes, furthered that revolution as it gave female nurses and mothers the support to dem...
  1  notes

Mothers separated from their babies are more likely to abuse them, while bonded infants are more responsive.

29 JUN 2011 by ideonexus

 The Mother-Infant Dyad

In a more evolutionardy appropriate infant-caretaker scheme, the infant is a social partner, part of a dyad. Both mother and infant are interested in being in equilibrium, that is, in a stable and contented state. This goal is adiieved by mutual regulation, by reciprocity, and by keepĀ¬ ing tabs on each other. This system nicely describes the infant-caretaker pair, and as I have presented in Chapter Two, there is a great deal of evidence that infants and those who love them are attuned to eac...
  1  notes

There is a reciprocal relationship between mother and baby and dysfunction occurs when one side does not reciprocate.