When you hear the words attachment parenting what comes to mind? For me it’s the helicopter parents that my high school teachers warned us would be detrimental when applying for colleges haha. Or the parents who would write angry notes to other parents or teachers when they felt their kid was being mistreated (now that I’m a mom, I can totally see myself doing this). Most of my initial impressions of attachment parenting form around parents being overly involved in their older child’s lives.
But lately there has been a lot of talk about attachment parenting with young children, toddlers, and infants, and whether or not it’s good for children–if it’s preventing their development and growth or even spoiling them.
I truly believe that the mark of a good mom is that she loves her child and wants the best for them–how each mom decides to accomplish that goal is 100% up to their unique family dynamic and situation. But today I want to discuss some of the hot attachment parenting topics, and tell you WHY I think they are ones we should all be considering!
Skin to Skin Contact – When I gave birth to Reagan in 2015, there was no discussion about skin to skin contact immediately after the birth. I didn’t have a strong opinion on it at the time, and felt pretty lucky that I got to snuggle a clean, bathed, weighed, and swaddled baby about 30 minutes after she was born. When I gave birth to Elliott in 2017 it was hospital policy to give mom and baby at least an hour of uninterrupted skin to skin contact immediately following the birth.
The National Center for Biotechnology and Information (NCBI) performed several randomized studies on skin to skin contact, here is a summary of their results.
For primary outcomes, we found a statistically significant positive effect of early SSC (skin to skin contact) on breastfeeding at one to four months postbirth…and SSC increased breastfeeding duration. Late preterm infants had better cardio-respiratory stability with early SSC. Blood glucose 75 to 90 minutes following the birth was significantly higher in SSC infants. The intervention appears to benefit breastfeeding outcomes, and cardio-respiratory stability and decrease infant crying, and has no apparent short- or long-term negative effects.
From my personal experience, Elliott was a much happier baby, more competent at breastfeeding, and I felt so much love and connection with her immediately after giving birth.
Sometimes, skin to skin contact immediately after birth cannot happen for medical reasons, and that’s okay too! I felt no less connected or in love with Reagan even though we were unnecessarily separated. However, if possible, I highly recommend making this a priority and part of your birth plan.
Baby Wearing – Considered by some to be a “crunchy mom fad” baby wearing is actually a lost practice that used to be commonplace decades and even centuries ago. Before all of the modern “conveniences” (strollers, bumbos, rock n play’s, etc.) baby wearing was how women were able to take care of their infants while tending to other tasks.
I didn’t wear my first baby at all. I was gifted a wrap but got frustrated with not knowing how to use it and gave up pretty quickly. With my second baby and a not even two year old, baby wearing was a life saver! I found good quality carriers, practiced a lot, and reaped the rewards of being able to take care of both of my children at the same time.
The benefits of baby wearing are similar to those of skin to skin contact, the goal being to promote closeness and bonding between mom and baby. There is some fascinating research that I found online about baby wearing, and I will ink to those articles HERE and HERE.
For a list of my favorite ways to baby wear and my favorite carriers, read this post.
Baby Led Weaning – I honestly had no idea what this was until a friend told me about it when I was pregnant with Elliott. My initial thought was that there was no way a baby could or would eat grown up foods, but after reading this book and finding baby food brands that help promote baby led weaning, (like Raised Real) I decided to give it a shot.
You can read a more detailed description of our experience at my blog post HERE, but let me just say that this is the best nutritional decision (besides breastfeeding) that I made for my second child, and I will definitely be doing it for any and all future babies!
Whatever number of children you have, or however you have decided to parent them, I would recommend these three attachment parenting ideals to consider adopting!