Especially around Mother’s Day, most of us reminisce and are reminded immediately of our mother’s arms holding and comforting us. Of special significance is the calming effect produced by mothers while carrying their crying babies. We can all certainly remember carrying our own infant, pacing the floor, trying to alleviate the crying.
Turns out there are very good reasons why mothers do this.
Recently published research from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Saitama, Japan shows that infants experience an automatic calming reaction upon being carried. This is true whether they are mice or human babies.
Background
Bonding between mother and infant is the earliest and most critical social relationship of infants. The bond is manifested in several ways through innate behaviors of infants to seek maternal proximity and to protest separation by communication with the mother vocally and through body movement.
The Study
This is the first study showing the infant calming response to being carried is a coordinated set of central, motor and cardiac regulations. Another contributor is the evolutionarily preserved component of mother-infant interactions. Interestingly, the research might also explain a frustrating reality for many new parents: Calm and relaxed infants will often start crying again just as soon as they are put back down, creating a bit of a circular phenomenon for both the infant and the mother.
One of the researchers, Kumi Kuroda, says, “This infant response reduces the maternal burden of carrying and is beneficial for both the mother and the infant.” Simply put, a mother’s arms really are the best place for an infant to be in terms of his or her chances of survival. Naturally, mothers certainly appreciate a calm and relaxed baby. The fact that babies naturally stop crying when they are carried is an evolutionary win-win.
The Results
Kuroda and her associates found the heart rates of human babies as well as their jerky movement slow immediately upon carrying. They also found that particular parts of the brain and parasympathetic nervous system are crucial in facilitating the coordinated response to carrying.
Infants under 6 months of age carried by a walking mother immediately stopped voluntary movement and crying and presented a rapid heart rate decrease, compared with holding by a sitting mother.
The Implications of the Study
The researchers say the findings have important implications for parenting and may even play a role in preventing child abuse by helping adults see things from an infant’s point of view.
“A scientific understanding of this infant response will save parents from misreading the restart of crying as the intention of the infant to control the parents, as some parenting theories – such as the ‘cry it out’ type of strategy – suggest,” Kuroda says. “Rather, this phenomenon should be interpreted as a natural consequence of the infant sensorimotor systems.”
One of the unfortunate outcomes of inconsolable crying babies is being vigorously shaken by the parent out of frustration, which can cause severe physical and mental problems and even death. Parents who understand this crying and holding phenomenon properly will perhaps be less frustrated by the crying, Kuroda says, and that puts those children at lower risk of abuse since the reason for most infant abuse cases involves inconsolable crying.
The study provides evidence that has the potential to impact current parenting theory and practice since inconsolable crying is the major risk factor for child abuse. More research is needed to help develop this theory, however.
Conclusion
Infants do experience an automatic calming reaction while being carried. Moreover, specific parts of the brain and parasympathetic nervous system are crucial in facilitating the infant’s coordinated response to carrying.
The infant cries. The mother desires to comfort the baby, so the mother picks the child up into her arms. The infant automatically becomes comforted and stills. The mother becomes calmed knowing that she has comforted her baby. The cycle is natural and beautiful. It also provides vital mother and child bonding.
The next time your infant cries, pick him or her up—holding your crying infant benefits you and your child!
