This Amazing Newborn

For too long it was believed that a newborn was unable to feel pain, see, distinguish sounds or remember what happened to him during birth and in the first days of life. The newborn was held by the legs, patted, then weighed, measured, a tag was attached, wrapped in a blanket and sent to an isolated crib in the common nursery.

Recent scientific research has shown that a newborn is as capable a young organism as any other in the animal kingdom. One neonatology expert has said that newborns learn better than ever before in their first days of life. They can turn towards the sound, being a few seconds old, babies can rotate not only their eyes, but also their heads if they want to see what they hear.

Newborns not only move their heads and eyes, but if you hold them over a table with their feet resting on them, they begin to imitate walking (this ability disappears after a few days, and then reappears after a few weeks). A newborn may reach, push or grab something.

Research also shows that at less than a week old, infants are excellent at identifying the color and shape of objects. They can imitate other people's facial expressions. For example, if the mother sticks out her tongue, the child will stick out his own. If she blinks her eyelashes, he will blink back. If the mother opens and closes her mouth, the child will simultaneously do the same.

A newborn already knows the voice of his mother and father. Placed immediately after birth on the mother's stomach, he turns his head and tries to make swimming movements in the direction of her voice. The newborn not only sees his parents, he learns to recognize their facial features and within a few days can simply turn away from strangers.

All instincts in a child are genetically laid down in such a way that from the moment of conception to the age of nine months he will be in close contact with his mother. So the ingrained tradition of removing a newborn from its mother, supposedly in order to keep it warm by wrapping it in a blanket, is contrary to its interests. Mother's skin is the best thermostat that maintains the desired temperature. The blanket only disturbs the child, depriving him of the feeling of security that he feels when contacting his mother body to body. Believe me, during the first twenty-four hours there can be nothing better for a child than contact with the naked body of the mother. What can rival the feeling of security for a baby with the opportunity to be close to parents, spend time with them during the day and snuggle with mother or father at night.

Ashley Montague emphasized the importance of infant-parent contact, arguing that children who lack it are unable to thrive physically, mentally and emotionally. Janov also writes: From the moment of birth, throughout the first year of life, the baby should communicate with its parents as often as possible. The closer to the immediate moment of birth, the greater the trauma when this is not present. If a child is left without physical contact with his mother during the first minutes, and even more so, hours of life, this can have an irreversibly difficult impact throughout his life, resulting in pain and stress. I want to say that, in my opinion, a child in the first days of life should sleep with his parents, and not in a separate crib. Only after several months of life does the child begin to maintain a sense of security when the mother, for example, goes out to the store.

These factors are so important for the full development of the physical, mental and emotional potential of the newborn that they need to be given special attention during pregnancy and even before it. The necessary information can be found in the books: Prenatal Influences and Human Heredity by Montague, The Meaning of Life by Dr. W. Code Martin, and The Parent-Infant Bond by Klaus and Kennell. Maria Montessori writes that children's ability to learn and enjoy