Being born is quite an experience. For about nine months, your baby bathed in the safe cocoon of your womb nest. And then… it's time to face the world. But what world will the baby meet? This is an article about the importance of the first hours after birth and what they can mean for a lifetime.
Attachment or separation?
Half a century ago, it was hospital routine in America, among others, to perform deliveries under general anesthesia. The child was cut from the abdomen and laid to rest, and it could be hours or sometimes days before the mother saw it. Unfortunately, I still hear stories from women who have to insist in hospitals to see their baby immediately after birth via cesarean section, although it seems almost impossible that this still happens today.
In my practice I always ask women how they were born themselves and whether special events occurred during pregnancy, at birth or just after. I always see how these already give an important imprint and how life themes can be derived from this leiden are. I don't see it merely as 'because this happened, I am now like this', which sounds like a damnation, but rather I see a life plan that emerges and develops very quickly, making certain challenges into insurmountable core themes that are carried out for a lifetime should be. With that information I already know enough about a person. When I hear that as a newborn baby they were not given the opportunity to build a secure attachment with the mother shortly after birth, due to hospital routines or because they were born prematurely and sometimes had to spend weeks in isolation in the incubator, I see adults for whom the world is not safe. They have become survivors, strong go-getters, and often fighters. Constantly fighting to get ahead, fighting against the environment, fighting to be seen without giving themselves heat, because this was their first life experience. The challenge here is to find the safe world within and find the warmth they didn't get within themselves. That early experience of separation and loneliness will repeat itself over and over again in different situations and with other people, creating the need to live these themes in their inner world so that the soul can grow. Because what the outside world has not given you, you always submit
to find the inner sheath. The first golden hours!
Below are some important tips to remember and respect as much as possible during the first hours after birth for a secure bond, both physically and emotionally:
- From the tummy to the tummy: put your baby naked on your bare tummy/chest, wrap your arms around it and only then a blanket, so that he can enjoy maximum skin contact.
- For the first hour after birth, the baby is very awake and alert. The search and sucking reflexes are then very strong. Reflexively, your baby will look for the breast. If you allow this process to happen, your baby will find your breast on its own and put it in its mouth. This process is easiest if skin contact with the mother after delivery is not broken before the baby has had a chance to breastfeed.
- It is recommended not to let anyone but the parents touch the baby. This will strengthen the baby's immunity.
- In the abdomen there is unity between the baby on the one hand and the placenta with the umbilical cord on the other. There is a continuous exchange of blood that continues after birth and the umbilical cord is still beating. 70% of the amount of blood is in the baby itself at birth, the other 30% is in the placenta with the umbilical cord (in premature babies, an even higher percentage is in the placenta with the umbilical cord). When the umbilical cord is cut immediately after birth, the baby misses a large percentage of the amount of blood with essential substances. It is therefore very important for the health of the child that the umbilical cord beats out after birth, so that the body receives all its valuable blood. The baby also receives oxygen after birth via the blood in the umbilical cord, allowing it to gradually get used to breathing. When the umbilical cord is cut, the baby really gets a shock, because it is suddenly completely dependent on the - for her completely new - breathing.
For more information; Anna Verwaal http://www.fromwombtoworld.com/contact/