Between pregnancy and your baby’s 2nd birthday, their brain will grow at the fastest rate in their life. Millions of brain cells will be connecting to each other as you make your baby feel loved and secure.
There are many ways to start a close loving relationship in pregnancy. One of them is noticing and responding to your baby's movements.
Keep your baby close to you so that you start to recognise the signals they make to tell you they are hungry or want a cuddle. Responding to these signals will make your baby feel safe. Cuddling your baby next to your skin allows them to smell you and hear your heartbeat, which will comfort and calm them. This will also help you to feel calm and relaxed and will help with breastfeeding
Holding your baby in skin to skin from birth, and any time after, is great to start creating those strong loving bonds.
Skin to skin:
- Calms and relaxes you and baby
- Helps regulate baby’s heart rate, breathing and temperature
- Stimulates baby to feed
- Helps you share the friendly bacteria in your skin with baby to start building their immune system
- Stimulates you to produce hormones that facilitate breastfeeding and mothering/parenting.
Responding to your baby
Follow these links to learn more about helping your baby grow and develop: