Bonding with your baby

What is bonding?

There's nothing quite as special as the deep bond between a parent and child. However, there's so much more to bonding than meets the eye. Bonding plays a critical role in your baby's emotional development, which in turn is the basis for all her future relationships. The importance of attachment and bonding shouldn't be underestimated. Despite this, many people don't know what contributes to bonding, how to enhance it and when it occurs.

Bonding has been defined by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as "The emotional and physical attachment occurring between a parent or parent figure, especially a mother, and offspring, that usually begins at birth and is the basis for further emotional affiliation." Bonding is more than just a warm fuzzy feeling – it's a critical, deeply emotional involvement and trust in another person. It's a misconception that bonding is an event or that it occurs at a particular instant, such as at the exact moment of birth. Bonding is in fact a journey; it's a process of getting to know, trust and rely on another person.

The importance of bonding

baby, bonding, post-natal depression