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If we go out on the streets, asking if it is okay to make the baby sleep on your lap, or to rock the baby while he is crying to calm him down, the vast majority of the answers will be: “No, by doing this you are getting used to it”, or this child will only want to be on his lap ”, or else“ he will just sleep like this! ”.
How correct are these answers?
At no point! The maternal instinct once again proved to be the wisest!
A survey by Great Ormond Street Hospital in the UK showed the benefits of lulling the baby. Rocking and singing for the child, in addition to providing well-being, provides better development , especially neural. This is true when the child is in the arms, swing, hammock or on a pillow.
Baby Benefits
Comfortable and pleasurable, the act of rocking improves the baby’s motor coordination, balance, muscle tone and visual alertness. Strengthens affective bonds and increases the baby’s sense of security. This all prepares for the crawling future of the little ones. Lulling the baby is vital for normal neurological development.
In addition, the body’s movements and sensations are the builders of the psychic apparatus. Lulling the baby establishes a calming correlation between its physiology and the newly discovered world, in addition to generating intimacy, trust and emotional nutrition between mother and baby.
Not only is the act of lulling the baby beneficial, but the songs that we sing while lulling our little ones are also beneficial. The study showed that in addition to being positive, the result was also surprising.
Baby Lullaby
During a study, thirty-seven patients under the age of three were “recruited”, all with heart or breathing problems. Each participated in three 10-minute sessions: in the first session, stories were read, in the second session, lullabies were sung and in a last session, the children were left alone to fall asleep.
What the researchers found was a significant decrease in heart rate and pain level at the end of the session involving music.
A lullaby determines a calming connection between a baby’s mind and body , his state of mind and the outside world. This is because the baby’s first awareness of the world is disconcertingly separated from the perception it had when it was inside the mother’s womb.
It is a huge and threatening world, a “great sound confusion” so intense as to unbalance your center of consciousness,
As soon as a lullaby begins, a sense of soft order infuses children’s consciousness. The rhythm of the song is close to its own heartbeat, the sound is calm and melodious, it sounds like a blessed relief in the disorganized sounds of the outside world. The simple and repetitive melody is also a source of comfort.
Other studies (there has been a flood of them in recent years) show that other factors are important in the coordination of the internal and external worlds. The mother’s voice proved to be soothing in itself, but there are certain combinations of vowels and consonants that also have the power to cause the same calming effect.
Childish babbles usually start with a loud “ma” sound followed by a low one. It is no accident that the word “mother” comes close to “ma-ma” in many cultures.
There is a very important part of the brain in the limbic system (the unit responsible for emotions and social behaviors) that is in charge of emotional responses to music.
Lullaby Benefit
What happens when a lullaby is sung to a baby is that the emotional part of the brain becomes stimulated by the music. This decreases the level of arousal, which in turn affects the levels of response to pain and produces calm and well-being.
So, lulling the baby, making him sleep on your lap, cradling his lullabies, is not only good for the mother and baby bond, but it is necessary for development.
It doesn’t matter what family members, friends say or the different techniques to make the baby sleep alone. Your child needs to feel welcomed and protected from a world he has just discovered, and you are the person who will help him with this task.
But beware: Lulling the baby is not about shaking him , but rocking him gently!
See also: Know Your Baby’s Reasons Not to Sleep
My name is Dr. Alexis Hart I am 38 years old, I am the mother of 3 beautiful children! Different ages, different phases 16 years, 12 years and 7 years. In love with motherhood since always, I found it difficult to make my dreams come true, and also some more after I was already a mother.
Since I imagined myself as a mother, in my thoughts everything seemed to be much easier and simpler than it really was, I expected to get pregnant as soon as I wished, but it wasn’t that simple. The first pregnancy was smooth, but my daughter’s birth was very troubled. Joana was born in 2002 with a weight of 2930kg and 45cm, from a very peaceful cesarean delivery but she had already been born with congenital pneumonia due to a broken bag not treated with antibiotics even before delivery.
