The Importance Of Bonding A Developing Child

Skin to skin contact immediately after birth provides comfort and stability for both mother and infant. Doing skin to skin contact immediately after birth in the

My plan and dissemination and implementation for my capstone project is to educate the nurses on the importance of teaching parents about the proper use of skin-to-skin contact. I plan on implementing this project by providing the nurses with the latest evidence based practice so that they can help implement this in their education in the NICU unit at Mount Sinai. Nurses are viewed as reliable source by the patient therefore it is important for us to implement good quality teaching. When I present this project to the unit I will make the following recommendations: to examine and reinforce the education among nurses in the unit and to encourage parents to attend a two hour hands on training course before discharge on skin-to-skin contact.

Attachment is the bond that links humans to vital people in their lives. This bond begins to develop early on in life. According to Berk (2012), infants can become attached to regular people in their lives before the second half of their first year of life. These early attachments are normally to the primary caregivers of the infant.

Attachment theory led not only to increased attention to attachments as a psychosocial process, it also led to a new understanding of child development (Bowlby, 1969). Freudian theory suggested that as libidinal drives fixed on different objects, former attachments would be broken; failure to break an attachment effectively would constitute a sort of trauma that could lead to later mental illness (Bretherton (1992). Attachment theory, however, suggested that growing children did not break former attachments, but rather (1) learned to become more active (or sovereign) within previously established attachments, and (2) added new attachments, which did not necessarily require a break with (and are not

According to, zero to three, social and emotional development in infants are building relationships and helping infants develop trust, empathy, compassion and a sense of right and wrong.

Berzoff, Flangan, and Hertz (2008) recognize Ainsworth differentiated two types of attachment styles. The first type is avoidant infants, who did not protest their mother’s leaving and did not respond to her immediately upon her return. Ainsworth’s second type is insecurity, ambivalent infants (also called resistant) were upset when their mothers left and seemed to welcome their return, but did not calm down readily and they often resisted their mothers attempt to calm them down. Max is a four year old child, who experienced a full term labor. Holistically his biological functioning was determined as appropriate having met all of his developmental milestones. Unexpectedly, Max experienced repeated trauma in early childhood and he was separated from his biological mother.

Evidence has shown what mothers and newborns need after birth, each other. There are many opportunities for skin-to-skin care and breastfeeding. Nurses and healthcare professionals must support the physiological need that mothers and newborns have for each other after the birthing process. It is crucial that the nurses recognize the short- and long­term health benefits for the mothers and newborns that result from skin-to-skin care. Therefore, as healthcare professionals it is important to educate the patients and prevent separation of a mother and her newborn as a healthy birth

Hospitals should strive to achieve the Baby-Friendly Initiative to help give mothers and infants a proper start. The initiative is a global effort for improving the role of maternity services to enable mothers to breastfeed babies for the best start in life. It aims to improve the care of pregnant women, new mothers, and newborns at health facilities that provide maternity services for protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding. Recent goals of the initiative were that at least 80% of mothers would confirm that their babies were placed in skin-to-skin contact with them immediately after birth and that skin-to-skin contact continued uninterrupted until the completion of the first feeding (or for at least one hour if not breastfeeding), unless there were medically justifiable reasons for delayed contact. Since the program's inception, approximately 15,000 facilities in more than 152 countries have been inspected and accredited as

Throughout life individuals build attachments to others weather they are healthy or destructive. The act of building an attachment begins in the early infant stages of life. Attachment is an emotional bond between an infant or toddler and primary caregiver, a strong bond that is vital for the child’s normal behavioral and social development (Dictionary.com, 2016). All children build an attachment not all attachments are lasting. Throughout this paper we will discover the effects of attachments and what happens when that attachment is broken.

Traditional research on Attachment Theory focuses on the bonds created between infants and their caregivers within the first few years of life. When tested, these children typically display an “organized” pattern of behavior when seeking comfort and safety from their caregiver. Organized attachments are those that follow a specific pattern of behavior and are clearly defined as secure, insecure—avoidant, or insecure—ambivalent. However, there remains a percentage of children who fail to engage in predictable behavior when seeking comfort. Essentially, these children behave indiscriminately towards their caregivers and strangers. With no set boundaries by which they seek and receive comfort, their behavior is classified as “disorganized.” New research in this field of study shows the importance in distinguishing the differences between “organized” and “disorganized” types rather than only observing the traditional types of attachment. While examining this new perspective in attachment theory, we speculate whether a lack of goal oriented behavior to seek comfort and safety will in turn lead to an increased risk in psychopathology in early childhood and adolescence.

Attachment has been described by Ainsworth et al. (1978) in terms of dyadic interactions in which emotional sensitivity and responsiveness were predictive of childhood attachment security. With that in mind, attachment classifications have failed to capture the behaviours that children evoke in their caregivers. EA emphasizes this dyadic relationship and goes above and beyond attachment and sensitivity. It combines attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969/1980), and emotional regulation perspectives and is influenced by systems theories (Emde, 1980). The construct was first conceptualized by Mahler, Pine, and Bergman (1975) who described EA as the ability to form a healthy “emotional dialogue” between caregiver and child, which promotes exploration

Secure attachment can support the child in developing and reaching their milestones in terms of their positive behaviour adjustment to adulthood, emotional, cognitive and biological development. (Granot and Mayseless, 2001).This can be difficult for mothers if there experiencing symptoms of PND which in turns leads to insecure attachments. Insecure attachment can lead to biochemical consequences in the developing brain and also social and emotional problems for the child (Levy and Orlans, 2014). Lack of love and security due to high level stress hormone can result in babies having impaired of body and brain (Van der Kolk, 2003). This highlights the importance role attachment plays in childhood development.

On November 20th 2014, our lecture that was presented was on attachment. Dr. Lutz gave examples on attachment of monkeys and bird infants with their parents. Konrad Lorenz came up with the imprinting theory. This was the process in which new born birds and some mammals becomes attached to their mothers. This is because of protection, food, etc. We also learned about Harlow’s study, in which he used monkeys to test attachment. During the study he had a baby monkey, and two fake moms. One was made from copper, but had a bottle. The other was made from cloth. We would think that when the monkey saw the bottle he would stay with that mom, but he went to the mom that was made from cloth, because of comfort.

According to attachment theory (Berger 2014; Fonagy, 2006), one of the most important factors in the development of both the child and the adult is the bonding that happens in the sensitivity period after birth. Though researchers disagree on the extent and determinative characteristics of this period (Fonagy), the general consensus is that bonding is more beneficial for both parent and infant than a lack of bonding (Berger, 2014, p. 69). Some European countries view this period as so critical that natural births in the home are preferred and new mothers are given a year-long leave of absence to care for and bond with their new infants (p. 66).

The next two components of healthy attachment between parents and children are the child’s ability to be affectionate towards their parents as well as other caregivers. When children are shown love through hugs and kisses, and being paid attention to, and are well taken care of, they are able to form a loving bond with their parents. In addition, they also form a bond with other caregivers besides their parents. Perry (2011) writes that, “When the infant has attentive, responsive, and loving care giving, this genetic potential is expressed. And as this infant becomes a toddler and more people-family, friends, peers-enter his life, he will continue to develop this capacity to have healthy and strong emotional relationships” (Perry, 2011). Not only will an infant or toddler have love for their parents, but also for other caregivers who they feel will keep them safe and secure. When children have a secure attachment with their parents and caregivers, they are able to form real relationships with other children as well.