Tips for bonding with your newborn

When you have a new baby everyone assumes you will instantly bond with your child. This, of course, can leave some new moms disappointed, heartbroken, and even feeling like they have failed when they do not instantly fall in love with their child at first sight. The truth is you may not instantly feel that bond with your child. That is okay. Your body has just been through so much and to expect your mind and body to instantly forget all of that, can be a bit too much to ask. These tips will help you with bonding with your newborn.

Start right away.

Being the first person to hold your baby and spending time to build a connection breastfeeding right away if possible is the best thing you can do for helping bond with your baby and give your milk supply a great start. This is something you should talk to your doctor about before you give birth to ensure that they are aware of what you want.

Skin to Skin Contact

Skin to skin contact is important for bonding with your baby and improve milk supply for easier breastfeeding. This releases good hormones that help you bond with your baby while giving your baby a sense of security they need to grow and thrive. the more skin to skin contact you have with your baby the closer you two will become.

Take some time without visiters.

Everyone loves to visit new babies. This is understandable because babies are so wonderful but it can be damaging to the forming of the mother-child bond if you have too many visitors around playing pass the baby or visitors that come and cause stress. The pressure guests often put on you to entertain them can be stressful and damaging when you are attempting to heal and bond with your child. Limit visitors or ask people to wait a couple of weeks to give you time to bond with your baby and build a strong milk supply by breastfeeding uninterrupted.

Smell your baby as often as possible.

The smell of a newborn baby has been proven to have a positive effect on women’s brains. The more time you spend basking in the smell of your newborn the more of these hormones you will release helping you to bond with your baby. This is the perfect way to spend some time while your baby is snuggling on your chest sleeping. If you choose to wear your baby to allow yourself to get more done with a new baby in the house you will have plenty of opportunities to smell that sweet baby head without making any extra effort.

Take care of yourself.

So often we feel the pressure to put all of our focus into our new baby and we end up not taking good enough care of ourselves in the weeks following the birth of our baby. This can be damaging to your physical and emotional health. Taking time for yourself is not only important for your recovery it is important for bonding with your baby as well. When we are worn out and struggling from lack of having our own basic needs met it can be difficult to bond with our child and helps contribute to postpartum depression.

Focus on your own health as well as your babies. Continue taking your prenatal vitamin during your postpartum recovery period and while breastfeeding to allow your body to keep up with necessary nutrition. This can help you feel better and make bonding with your baby less stressful.

Talk to a professional

If after a while you still feel as if you are struggling to bond with your newborn talk to your doctor or mental health care professional. Postpartum depression can affect anyone and the best thing you can do is seek help when you need it before it becomes harder to cope with. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our babies is to put our own needs first and seek help when things become too overwhelming.