Mother Love
Scientific studies conclude something mothers everywhere have
always intuitively known - that the unique love they have for
their offspring is vitally important to their development. A
mother's love and nurturing even directly impacts the biological
development of the child's brain and central nervous system. In
effect, mother and child are "hard-wired" for mutual love. The
brain is like a template designed to await molding by its early
environment. One researcher even wrote that hugs and kisses
during the early critical periods assist in making neurons grow
and connect properly with other neurons. Throughout childhood,
warm human love and touch generate an internal release of
addicting and pleasurable opiates. Even teenagers (who may act
as if they don't need the parents at all) must receive ongoing
neural synchrony - love - from the parents. The brain and heart
appear literally designed for love, with happiness and even
health depending on it. The pituitary hormone, oxytocin, is
present during all loving acts but most especially at birth
where it serves to stimulate uterine contractions, and during
nursing for the milk ejection reflex. It, along with the nursing
hormone, prolactin, help create that intense feeling of love
shared by mother and child. Endorphins are physiological
chemicals that are also released in both the mother and child
during loving contact. They create a feel-good high for both and
thus play a critical role in encouraging affection and
dependency.
When bonding fails, it is theorized that the absence of these
pleasure chemicals can leave a void, making such children
especially susceptible to drugs that can also release such
pleasure chemicals. The stress hormone cortisol is also released
when touch and love are lacking. Sensory deprivation in
mother-absent children - a form of stress that stimulates the
release of cortisol - can increase susceptibility to
abnormalities such as depression, violence, substance abuse, and
even impaired immune response. The most natural way mothers deal
with newborns in the majority of the world is with an in-arms
approach. In more primitive cultures where mothers are barely
allowed a break from work to give birth, babies are swaddled to
the body creating constant contact and reassurance. This bathes
tissues in love hormones and encourages development of healthy
neural connections, particularly as the synaptic connections in
the cortex develop for the first two years of life.
There is also heart-to-heart, quite literally, between mother
and child. Heart muscle cells not only contract, but also
communicate with one another. Isolating one cell from the heart
in a petri dish causes it to lose its rhythm and begin to
fibrillate until it dies. Putting two cells in proximity to one
another causes them to synchronize and beat in unison. There is
an unseen and as yet unmeasured communication between living
cells. The beating of the mother's heart and her breathing
pattern coordinate in a critical way with the infant's internal
rhythms. This is part of what is known as a synchronizing
hormonal flow that occurs between mother and child (directly
from breast milk and also from loving contact and even from
proximity and thought) that help to regulate vital rhythms in
the child. Mothers instinctively place their babies to their
left breast, keeping their two hearts close. The mother's
developed heart actually stimulates the newborn heart activating
a dialogue between the two hearts and minds. Mother and child
are more appropriately considered as one, rather than two
separate entities as they bond while the child is being held and
nursed. These interesting links that science is revealing
between mother and child are another proof that all life is
holistic and intimately interconnected. The ideal holistic model
is that which nature presents and it is clear that mother and
child are meant to be intimate. Children cannot simply be cast
off to be fed, clothed and housed as if that were enough.
Society needs to take note of this important biology as more and
more pressure is put on modern families and mothers to treat
newborns as just another duty to schedule into the appointment
book or to have serviced by a third party. By giving love the
respect it deserves and making it the starting point of life,
the odds are much greater that love will then blossom in
children and be carried through to their children...and, who
knows, perhaps continue on to the world at large. We could use a
lot of that.
Janov, Biology of Love, 2000, Prometheus Books
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1573928291/qid=1060190175/
sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/002-3171269-3580012#product-details
Odent, The Scientification of Love, 1999, Free Assn Books
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1853434760/qid%253D1060190
558/sr%253D11-1/ref%253Dsr%255F11%255F1/002-3171269-3580012
Pearce, Evolution's End,1993, Harper
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006250732X/qid=1060190780/
sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-3171269-3580012
Amini et al, A General Theory of Love, 2001, Vintage Books. ,
2003; 117
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375709223/qid=1060191020/
sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-3171269-3580012