Bonding with your baby is so important. For some it comes very naturally while others may be looking for some guidance on how they can feel that closeness with their baby. Here’s everything you need to know about bonding with baby!
This post breaks down everything you need to know about the importance of bonding with baby including mom and baby bonding, dad and baby bonding tips, bonding with baby in womb, and the easy baby bonding activities you can do the minute your little one is born. Plus, some perspective on how to bond with baby as a working mom.
You will also learn about potential postpartum emotional health struggles, which may make it more difficult for some moms to bond with baby and how you can best address them.
This post is all about bonding with baby.
Bonding with Baby
It’s not uncommon to feel like you’re not bonding with baby right away or wondering if you’re doing it right.
You’ve waited nine months to meet your precious little bundle of joy but the truth is, so much changes when your baby is born.
As new parents, bringing a baby into your world can be a big adjustment in all areas. Plus, if you had a difficult delivery or are dealing with postpartum mental health issues, you might be feeling like you’re not doing it “right”.
This may leave you wondering if there’s anything you can actively do to develop that bond with your baby.
The Importance of Bonding with Baby
Bonding with baby as a newborn is essential for infant development. It sets the stage for the child to form healthy relationships throughout his or her life as well as experience and express a full range of emotions.
It also contributes to the child’s overall self esteem, happiness and emotional, cognitive and social development in the first few years of life.
Thankfully, newborn baby bonding isn’t anything complicated. Just being an attentive and loving parent who responds to your child’s needs promptly and provides a safe and secure home makes a world of a difference.
When does bonding with baby occur?
There is no start and end date but it’s important to know that bonding with baby doesn’t always occur instantly. For some, it can take a few months to really feel connected to your baby.
But believe it or not, you can begin bonding with baby in the womb. You can start forming a connection just by taking care of your body throughout pregnancy, getting excited by the baby’s little flutters and kicks, singing and getting a closer look at your baby during the ultrasounds.
Once the baby is born, baby bonding happens with everything you do: feeding, diaper changes, snuggles, comforting the baby when he cries, singing songs and so much more.
Your bond will be ever growing and changing throughout the next few days, months and years!
Mom and Baby Bonding
Mom and baby bonding can happen in so many different ways. It’s pretty incredible when you think about it.
Here are the top five tips you can focus on to foster an even deeper connection with your little one .
1 – Through Touch
Mom and baby bonding through touch happens almost immediately after birth. Your baby is placed on your chest after delivery, which is also known as skin to skin.
Snuggling your baby has such a powerful impact on mom and baby. Not only does it promote a sense of security but it also promotes healthy growth and development of your baby.
2 – Wrapping
This includes baby wearing and swaddling. Your baby has just spent nine months in your womb where he was snuggly and secure. So most newborns still crave that comfort and secureness after birth. The good news is you can still achieve that over the next few weeks and months with wrapping.
The first type of wrapping is a swaddle. You may think your baby doesn’t like swaddles, but trust me that’s not the case. Swaddling your baby tightly, especially for sleeping, helps calm and relax babies. You can still sing, talk and snuggle your baby while in a swaddle too.
This is my all time favorite velcro swaddle.
Another great way to bond with your baby through wrapping is using a wrap-style carrier. This type of carrier is ideal for newborns and allows you to carry them around on your chest. Plus, this type of wrap is really convenient because it frees up your hands to do other things.
This is a great baby wrap option you can try.
3 – Baby Bonding Activities
Bonding with your baby can be as easy as reading, talking and singing to your baby.
Reading early and often is a great routine to get into. It will also be the basis for your bedtime routine as your baby gets a little older. Plus, reading baby books stimulates your baby’s growing brain and helps develop language skills long before your baby can talk.
Singing to your newborn are also very powerful baby bonding activities. It is known to stimulate them cognitively and is a great way to strengthen your bond. It doesn’t matter what songs you sing or if you’re the worst singer in the world. Your baby will naturally find your singing to be soothing and hypnotic.
Finally, just talking to your baby about the everyday tasks you’re doing or what’s around them is another great baby bonding activity. Just like with singing, your baby will find your voice to be calming and as you eye contact with him, he will begin memorizing your face and really recognizing your voice. You will begin to feel more and more of a closeness with your baby too.
4 – Responding to Baby’s Cries
This might sound like a no-brainer but promptly responding to your baby’s needs and cries goes a long way for bonding with baby.
Anytime your baby cries, pick them up to comfort and soothe them. As a newborn, your baby cries to communicate a variety of things with you including the need for a diaper change, bottle or snuggles with you to calm them down.
As a newborn, you don’t have to worry about spoiling your newborn. It’s essential at this age to respond to all of your baby’s cries. And remember, if they need to be rocked to sleep or nap best when on your chest, then there’s no guilt in that. If anything, take the opportunity to enjoy the baby snuggles because you will blink and your baby will be a few months older.
Responding to your baby’s cries is the foundation for creating a secure attachment between you and your baby. The early signs of secure attachment include your baby responding to your smile with a facial expression or movement (4 weeks old), smiling back at you (3 months old), and turning to you and expecting a response when he or she is upset (4 to 6 months old).
5 – Nourishing Your Baby
Feeding your baby is a great way to bond with your baby, regardless of if you’re breastfeeding or bottle feeding.
Either method of feeding allows you time to snuggle your baby, talk, and even sing to him or her. You can use this time to make direct eye contact too and hold or rub his hand.
Plus, once your baby is done eating, you will have the opportunity for more close contact when you burp him or her. You can also take the time to enjoy skin to skin contact or just your baby on your chest while they digest.
Working Mom Baby Bonding
Hopefully you have a few weeks off for maternity leave after your baby is born and you can soak up all the time with your newborn baby. But even when you go back to work, there is plenty of opportunity for you to continue bonding with your baby.
Your baby will still need to eat in the morning, after daycare and most likely overnight for several months. Plus, you will have time for baths, singing, and snuggling around your workday.
Some moms actually feel more refreshed after a little time away from their baby for work.
Regardless of if you work or not, you will still have plenty of time for to bond with your baby around your weekday schedule and on the weekends.
Postpartum Emotions
Being a newly postpartum mom comes with every emotion you can possibly imagine: love for your new baby, happiness, exhaustion, overwhelm, and at times even sadness.
The truth is, it’s normal to feel anxious as you adjust to your new role as mom and the world around you seems to change overnight but it’s also important to know what postpartum warning signs to look out for in case there is something more serious going on like postpartum anxiety or postpartum depression.
Postpartum hormones can dramatically impact not only how you feel as a new mom but may also interfere with mom and baby bonding. It’s important to give yourself grace and talk to your doctor if you feel like you need help.
You can read more about postpartum emotions here:
- Everything You Need To Know About Postpartum Hormones
- The Shocking Truth About Postpartum Emotions Every New Mom Needs To Know About
- How To Tell If You’re Experiencing Baby Blues Symptoms
- Postpartum Depression Causes: Everything New Moms Need To Know
Bonding Tips for New Dads
A dad’s involvement with their newborn baby is just as important as mom’s interaction.
Dad and baby bonding not only creates a strong rapport between the two but it comes with it’s positive impacts too. These include better relationships with peers as the child grows up, more academic success, decreased stress and increased confidence, and lower risk of depression later in life.
Now let’s take a look at some practical bonding tips for new dads that can be implemented immediately:
1- Don’t underestimate the power of snuggling your baby.
This includes skin to skin time, holding the baby when awake or napping and making use of baby carriers and slings. Human touch is powerful and soothing for both parent and baby and also helps the baby feel safe and protected.
2- Take the night shift
Allowing your partner to get more sleep is beneficial to the entire household. So if there’s an opportunity to help overnight, dads can absolutely help and play an important role.
3- Get involved in feeding and diaper changes
If the mother is breastfeeding but is able to pump or you are formula feeding your baby, it’s a perfect way for dads to get involved. Plus, it gives dads the ability to rock the newborn back to sleep after eating.
Every mom on the planet would also accept help with diaper changes. Sometimes it feels like all you do is feed your baby and change diapers so having a second set of hands is a game changer. Dads can use this time to sing and talk to the baby as well as add in a game of peek-a-boo or something similar as the baby gets older.
4- Spend one on one time with the baby
This is one of my favorite bonding tips for new dads. There’s something about bonding in a one on one setting that gives dads the confidence that they are capable of handling their baby’s needs without mom swooping in to save the day (I’m totally guilty of doing this oops).
Dad can still cook breakfast while wearing the baby in a sling or carrier or even take a shower with the baby set up in a bouncy seat (while keeping an eye on the baby of course).
As the baby gets older, dads can incorporate play time into their bonding with baby just like moms do too.
5- Comfort baby when in distress
Dad and baby bonding doesn’t just happen when the baby is happy – that’s just not real life.
The truth is, baby’s cry a lot on a given day and there are plenty of opportunities for dad to help calm the baby when he’s crying.
Not only does this help dad learn the differences in his baby’s cries but sometimes dads have the extra patience, humor and “cool as a cucumber” attitude that is needed in a time of stress.
So before dad’s automatically hand the baby off to you, the mom, it’s good for them to take the time to try to comfort the baby and take on that fatherly role. It will not only help the dad develop his confidence with the baby but also give the mom a little bit of a break. It’s really a win-win situation for the family.
This post was all about bonding with baby.