Your relationship starts in pregnancy with your body providing security, oxygen and nutrients. Bonding emotionally with your baby is also something that grows as you feel them move and grow inside you. After birth, skin to skin contact immediately builds on the relationship already nurtured in pregnancy. Between birth and your baby’s first birthday, their brain more than doubles in weight and one of the most significant factors to influence this early brain development is your relationship with them.
This in turn improves the long-term emotional and social health of your baby. Remember you cannot spoil your baby with love or by giving them attention. Babies need to feel safe and secure by you meeting their needs and caring for them.
Babies who are regularly left to cry have been shown to have high levels of cortisol, which stunts brain development, so crying needs to be responded to.
Babies love looking at the faces of their carers and will watch and follow faces. As they get older they will focus more and listen intently to your voice.
After your baby is born it is great to:
❤️ Make eye contact with your baby
❤️ Be aware of the tone, pitch and rhythm of your voice
❤️ Make smiley facial expressions
❤️ Use lots of gentle touch
❤️ Sing wee nursery rhymes (they don’t mind if you can’t sing!)