Ainsworth (1974) commented that infants who have been responded to sensitively and held frequently and affectionately during the early months, cry less towards the end of the first year and are able to play happily and explore their environment…
Aware Parenting combines the best of attachment parenting and non-coercive discipline with allowing a baby and child the freedom to express their feelings.
Do you wish to raise a person who listens to and hears the needs of others, who enjoys and responds timeously to social interaction and intimacy? Or do you wish to raise a person who is shut off from his own feelings and the feelings of others, who had to stand alone from an early age and learns to mistrust that other humans will meet his needs and be there for him?
Tanya approached me last year for a vaginal birth after 3 caesarians (VBAC3), after she had weighed the risks versus the benfits of a repeat caesarian section. The risk of uterine rupture in women with more than one prior caesarean who attempt VBAC is not significantly increased over the risk for women with one prior caesarean.
The quality of what we eat can affect our genes for up to two generations!!!! Not only is the food we eat filled with pesticide remnants and organophosphates, first world citizens are exposed to many additional teratogens in our homes, cleaning agents and paints, carpets, never mind the prescription drugs that are prescribed over the counter. Read the article for which I include links.
It is these kinds of actions that will help us as a society to prevent the loss and despair in the newborn, described by John Bowlby so eloquently, and enable a mother to provide the right kind of interaction and closeness for her baby’s emotional and neurological development. It is out of such actions that mutual co-operation and loving partnerships will grow for our children.
Evidence suggests that traumatic events and prolonged stress and/or separation during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period may permanently affect a baby’s developing brain structures and patterns of behaviour.