In the Beginning 

little peace and quiet, gliding softly and nat­urally into a new kind of togetherness.Your feeling of "motherly instinct" and responsibility will grow with your ability to interpret and respect your baby's signals. And because you will be helping your child interpret the world, it's very important that you convey trust, hope, and love.

BEING IN RHYTHMIC HARMONY

Even if you work outside the home, you'll probably be the person who looks after your baby the most and is closest to him or her during the early years. Through feeding and continual care, you will learn what your child's facial expressions, movements, and cries mean. You'll become more and more receptive to your child's rhythms for eating, sleeping, and being awake. People who research these things some­times talk about the mother-child interplay

THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERPLAY BETWEEN MOTHER AND CHILD

We know today that newborn babies enter the world as complete little people who can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. They are not passive and uninterested, as people used to think. Even immediately after birth, babies are interested in their environment and are sensitive to stimula­tion. When newborns are put onto their mother's tummy, they'll often look up at her with curiosity. Through eye contact, hug­ging, kissing, talking, and loving touch, the earliest bonds are formed. These kinds of contact help babies develop into people who are comfortable with their surroundings.

Because of all that, it's important that the interplay between mother and child start as soon after birth as possible. The baby is phys­ically separate from you for the first time ever, so it's best if the two of you can have a

COLICKY BABIES

Babies need to learn how to adapt to life outside the womb. Sleeping newborns are sort of the way they were inside the womb. Their sleep is interrupted every now and then, in a more or less regular way, for phys­ical needs. Hunger and discomfort, pain and crying are satisfied by feeding and changing, tenderness, closeness, and sleep. Gradually, a rhythm of sleep and activity develop. Some children, however, find it hard to find a rhythm, so they cry and cry, and can't fall asleep — which puts quite a strain on them and their parents. If a child has frequent, powerful crying spells, pulls the legs up, makes the hands into fists, and can't be con­soled, we call it colic. This is discussed in Chapter 7, "Colic," on pages 45 to 47.  

THE MOST NATURAL INCUBATOR IS THE MOTHER

It may seem a paradox that we sometimes have to turn to science, only to rediscover natural things. Premature birth usually means that mother and baby will be separated for a while. The baby is put into an incu­bator to monitor and help him or her. Unfortunately, this also means that the pre­emie missed out on a lot of the early stimula­tion and bonding that full-term babies get.

However, there is an alternative to the incubator, if the bab^y is in ^good shape — the mother herself! Hospitals in Colombia, in South America, have been trying "the kanga­roo method" for several years. In the kanga­roo method, the healthy preemie is put onto

the mother as soon as possible — under her blouse, between her breasts, in an upright position, like a baby kangaroo in its mother's pouch. The baby stays this way, day and night, to receive warmth, nourishment, and nurturing. Not onl^y have more of the pre­emies survived and thrived, but the new mothers have gained self confidence, as well. They, not the hospital, helped their babies! Now, hospitals in the United States and other industrialized countries have also used this method and, after careful testing, found it to be generally safe.