Close and Loving Relationships

To mark International Breastfeeding week, Debra Hennessy, IBCLC, Family Nursing and Home Care (FNHC), and Deborah McCoy, Infant Feeding Specialist Midwife, Health for Community Services (HCS), have collaborated on a series of blog posts to celebrate the week.

Did you know that every time you respond to your baby’s movements when they are tucked up inside your tummy and you sing or talk to your baby, you are releasing the hormone oxytocin (known as the love hormone).

Oxytocin is also released when you think about your baby, and this makes you feel relaxed and happy. You can also encourage your partner and other close family members to talk, sing or read to your baby. By doing this you are helping your baby’s brain to develop and grow.

After your baby is born keep them close to you in skin to skin as soon as you can and for as long as you want to. This helps to calm you both, giving you both the chance to rest, stay warm and get to know each other.

If you are planning to breastfeed this is the perfect time to start, your baby is very clever and might move toward the breast themselves and attach to the breast without any help (this is called the breastcrawl). When your baby attaches and feeds at the breast, oxytocin is released from you both and you will feel close and connected to your baby.

The early days after having your baby can be challenging and you might find it difficult at first to know what your baby wants. Skin to skin is always a good place to start, responding to your baby ‘s needs for food and comfort will not only support their brain development, but it will make them feel safe and secure. When babies are secure, they release oxytocin, this acts like a fertiliser for their growing brain, helping them to be happy babies and more confident children and adults. 

Cuddling your baby eases pain, enables eye contact, supports bonding, builds a happy brain, builds independence and resilience, and helps with speech development. You can never over cuddle your baby.

You cannot overfeed your breastfed baby, so you can use breastfeeding to soothe your baby and as a way of spending time together or having a rest whenever you both want.