It’s a good thing that giving is the same as receiving when it comes to hugs, right? Now, science says you can be smarter for it. If you were about two feet long and weighed roughly 10 pounds, your brain would develop better. Researchers reveal kids who get more hugs have more developed brains.
BABIES AND THEIR BRAIN DEVELOPMENT THROUGH TOUCH
When we think about learning, we consider reading, studying, using our hands, calculations, and other processes. We started, as babies, we began exploring by touching things. Of our five senses, touch is the first to develop. From this, a newborn baby must navigate their new world.
According to an article from Stanford’s Medicine, Dr. Susan Crowe, an obstetrician, and director at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, outlines the nine instinctual stages right after birth.
“Birth cry, relaxation, awakening, activity, resting, ‘crawling’ (a shifting movement toward the breast), familiarization, suckling, and sleep.”
As soon as physically safe for both mother and baby, it’s time for skin-to-skin contact and guiding the baby toward breastfeeding.
Just the holding of the baby within the first hour, regardless of breastfeeding, can help in normalizing the baby’s body temperature, heartbeat, and pattern of breathing. For many babies, it also decreases the amount of crying. Simultaneously, the mother releases more relaxation hormones. This also becomes the bonding time for mother and baby. Should the partner of the mother also hold the baby, it begins the bonding time for them as well.
BENEFITS OF INFANT MASSAGE
Infant massages could be integrated into this bonding experience, as well. The same article in Stanford’s Medicine notes a wide array of benefits. According to Maureen McCaffrey, a certified infant massage instructor at Packard’s Children Hospital, these benefits consist of:
• Better sleep patterns for the baby
• Baby appears more aware of being loved, secure, and accepted.
• Improved digestion and bowel movements
• Babies demonstrate more comfort by less fussy behavior
• Weight gain improves
• Mother and baby appear more relaxed
• Neurological function in babies is improved
Another study done at the University of Washington aimed to locate the area of the brain in which a baby registers both “felt” touch and “observed touch.” This study proves babies can discern between an actual physical touch vs. an image of a hand touching another person. The study found that by seven months old, a baby can not only understand the concept of their “self,” but also knows their body is separate from another person.
THE POWER OF TOUCH FOR BABIES
That knowledge is what established the foundation for mimicking others’ behavior as well as developing empathy. The researchers discovered through specialized imaging that touch registers in the somatosensory cortex. Depending upon if it was an actual touch, what part of the body the contact occurred in, or if it was an image, the location, and strength of the signal within the somatosensory cortex in which it was registered changed.
What was also fascinating was recognizing that the baby, before it can speak or know the words for body parts, already understands that their hand or foot moves similarly to another person’s. Through imitating how the other person moves, the baby is also able to move. It is this process which makes both imitations, and later, empathy, possible.
In a study of the opposing focus, researchers learned of detriment to children who don’t receive touch. A report in Pediatrics Child Health, published in PMC, outlines the results of various studies, one of which was the result of providing touch to children who were previously deprived. The study focused primarily on limb movement as a form of sensory stimulation. They discovered that with 10 minutes a day of handling, over ten weeks, babies “spit up” less.
The babies with 20 minutes of daily tactile stimulation, over ten weeks, increased in their developmental scores. In the case of premature babies, stroking their limbs, and mild limb movement demonstrated weight gain, longer alertness, more mobility, better adaptation to repeated stimuli, and awareness of their bodies. After a year, they scored high on weight and growth and motor skills and had reduced mild neurological dysfunctional symptoms.
OXYTOCIN AND HUGS
Oxytocin is a hormone and neurotransmitter produced in our hypothalamus and released from our pituitary gland. Its levels increase during breastfeeding, orgasm, and hugs.
In regards to the effect on babies and their development, oxytocin encourages bonding between a mother and her baby. This might explain why breastfeeding increases a woman’s hormone levels. It tends to foster feelings of trust, closeness in relationships, and maternal instinct or care. Ironically, this hormone was discovered by scientists at the Weizman Institute to be the construction crew for its own future paths of blood vessels while in an embryonic brain. Therefore, it facilitates the baby’s ability to produce oxytocin after the brain, his or her brain, fully develops.
While oxytocin has been nicknamed the “love hormone” or the “hug hormone,” it is more complicated than what was initially perceived. It originally was recognized as the hormone that, when released in our blood, aids in uterine contractions during childbirth and induces labor. Over time, it was discovered that it has a different reaction when it is released into the brain. It then has variable effects on our cognitive, emotional, and social behavior.