By Hannah Schenker
Having a bath as part of a wind-down routine in the evening before your baby goes to sleep is a lovely way for baby to relax and for you both to connect, calm down and for baby to feel secure. Building secure attachment with your baby is easy to do at bath time, as you take time away from distractions to gently give your baby lots of attention and loving touch. This kind of nurturing, loving environment will help them to develop trust and the skin-to-skin contact will benefit them in their lives to come.
Babies tend to enjoy being in the bath – it’s warm and soothing, a bit like where they used to live (the womb!) and it offers you and other family members an opportunity to bond with your child, especially through physical touch.
This kind of nurturing, loving environment will help them to develop trust and the skin-to-skin contact will benefit them in their lives to come.
Physical touch is so important for your baby, they really do thrive on affection. The far-reaching impacts of skin to skin contact (SSC) or kangaroo care as it is also known, has been studied extensively and its benefits are profound: it stabilises premature babies more quickly than an incubator, stabilises a premature baby’s heart rate and breathing, relieves pain, encourages milk production, assists in establishing breastfeeding, and promotes a stronger bond between parent and child [source].
Bath time allows you to carry this special physical contact on in the months following birth – whether you are in the bath with your baby or not.
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