When a baby is born, the first thing it wants to see is it's mother's eyes. No, not the breasts, as we previously thought; video material of new-born infants shows that a baby is restless, until it has looked into it's mother eyes. A mother of a newborn baby will instinctively lie with her baby on her breasts; gazing at its face, which is tilted slightly backwards, to achieve just the right distance. Sensitive mothers all do this: to set themselves and the baby up in such a way that a comfortable, yet highly intimate 'eye-exchange' takes place. Soon afterwards, the newborn infant achieves a look of quiet satisfaction, and falls asleep.
If we look at this natural gaze, and the intimacy between mother and infant, it is difficult not to be moved. This is love, is it not? A neurochemical by the name of Oxytycin is involved here. No, it is not only chemical; it is proof that we are body and mind at one; that we are the human species; made for bonding, made for relationship, made for love between mother and child.What if this goes wrong? What if we lose it, for example in adolescence? Before we get to these hugely important questions, let us first look closer at the newborn and its mother . . .
