Newborn's Need For Contact With The Mother example essay topic

THE HUMAN SIGNIFICANCE OF SKIN Skin is often over looked and under appreciated by all of us. We live our lives habitually without realizing what an amazing and important role skin plays in our every day routine. Our skin protects us from many things, keeps us informed of our surroundings and makes us aware of many dangers present. The sense of touch is our most developed feeling and the predecessor of all of our other senses.

The author gives several examples on how we have incorporated our sense of touch to our colloquial language as an expression of just how much we use our skin. But our skin may serve more purposes than those of protection and information. Through several experiments it has been demonstrated that the sense of touch is highly associated with the immune system, the development of social skills, and even the survival of the species. Montagu uses a number of case studies in which he relates skin to death rates and success in healing wounds. On one particular study done on laboratory rats where humans had handled the first group and had not handled the second group, the conclusions were surprising. After a surgery were the thyroid and parathyroid glands had been removed on both groups, the survival rate of the group handled by humans was 87% compared to 12% for the group that had not been handled by humans.

This study seemed to shed light on the need since birth for skin-to-skin contact from the parents towards their newborn and vice versa. The bond created during those firsts instants that mother and newborn spend together will not only help the mother but will also teach the newborn skills that it will need for survival. Stimulus: An action or event that elicits a behavioral response. Response: A behavior, either instinctual or learned, that is elicited by a certain stimulus. Conditioning: Any learning process that occurs within the laws of behavioral theory. Montagu talks about a study done by professor Harry Harlow on monkeys.

Harlow discovered that infant monkeys raised in a wire mesh cage survived with difficulty if at all during the first five days of their life. But when terry cloth was introduced in the cage, healthy babies developed. Harlow set up an experiment where two? mothers? were introduced in the cage. The first one was made out of terry cloth and was warm and soft. The second one was made out of wire and carried the milk that would feed the monkeys.

Monkeys responded to the stimuli of the terry cloth mother in such a way that it overshadowed the purpose of mother's milk and put close contact as the main principle of nursing. The infant monkeys were expected to be conditioned to the wire monkey and respond to their instinct of survival first. But the study showed that the monkeys valued tactile stimulation more than they did nourishment, preferring to cling to the mothers that provided them with warmth and physical contact. Social Learning: A theory that learning occurs through observation and imitation of others.

Parent-newborn bond: The strong feelings of attachment that arise between parents and their newborn infants. When a baby is born, a mother is born as well. Harlow observed in the monkeys that the need from the mother to have intimate contact with the newborn was greater than the newborn's need for contact with the mother. In the human mother, the parent-newborn bond is much stronger than in the other mammals serving the purpose of arresting post-partum depression, contraction of the uterus, and better circulation. Harlow uncovered that monkey mothers that were failures, had had early experiences where their contact with a real mother was limited and normal parent-newborn relationships were never formed. Two of the mothers were indifferent towards their babies and three were physically abusive.

Maternal brutality in mammal's stems from inadequate social learning from their own mothers and other mothers surrounding them. This behavior set in within the first year of life. There is also a bond created between the mother and the newborn when it comes to grooming in many different species. At any rate, when this contact is lost, the result is almost always an inadequate mother unable to raise an adequate child. The most important thing that humans should know about development is that it starts very early in the womb and needs to be reinforced as much as possible. Our society is one where we do not have enough time to nurse our babies, to hold them when they cry or to play with them when they need our attention.

We have mothers that choose to give their babies formula when they would have been capable of breast feeding, mothers that buy all sorts of new gadgets to keep their child from crying, and mothers that will turn on any toy or put on any video as long as they can have time apart from their child. It has been proven through many studies that the maternal instinct is just that, an instinct. It needs to be nurtured and cultivated in the child from the second they come into the world. By neglecting it we are creating a society that is shying away from what nature has intended to be and is raising unfit mothers.

The most alarming consequence of these actions is the fact that this creates a never-ending circle where we see more abuse and child neglect day by day. Before reading this article I never had questioned the function of my skin to a deeper level than just skin. It seemed like a protective layer and i liked the fact that it tans nicely during the summer. After reading this article i have gained some knowledge that i will pass on to my sister and my children. Skin is a major organ and an extra sense that we have been blessed to have.

Communication between a mother and a child has never seen so beautiful and natural to me before. This article has given me the insight to practice all those rituals that I saw my mother perform on my sister and that she surely performed on me. Now i understand why she massaged us with baby oil every day and enjoyed stroking our foreheads for hours. That was just her way of preparing us for what we will become one day. Mothers of happy, healthy, well adjusted children.