The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
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An interactive resource for moms on easy steps they can take to reduce exposure to chemical toxins during pregnancy. Other excellent resources about avoiding toxins during pregnancy These are easy to read and understand and are beautifully presented. |
[from Magical Child by Joseph Chilton Pearce, Chapter 7 - Breaking the Bond, first few paragraphs, p. 51]
Jean MacKellar told me of her years in Uganda, where her husband practiced medicine.[1] Local mothers brought their infants to see the doctor, often standing patiently in line for hours. The women carried the tiny infants in a sling, next to their bare breasts. Older infants were carried on the back, papoose style. The infants were never swaddled, nor were diapers used. Yet none of them were soiled when finally examined by the doctor. Puzzled by this, Jean finally asked some of the women how they managed to keep their babies so clean without diapers and such. "Oh," the women answered, "we just go to the bushes." Well, Jean countered, how did they know when the infant needed to go to the bushes? The women were astonished at her question. "How do you know when you have to go?" they exclaimed.
Konner, in his studies of the Zhun/Twasi, an African hunting-gathering culture, found the infants carried in the Ugandan fashion.[2] These mothers always knew when the infant was going to urinate or defecate and removed the child to the bushes ahead of time. The mother sensed the general state of the infant and anticipated the infant's every need.
These mothers and infants have bonded. Bonding is a nonverbal form of psychological communication, an intuitive rapport that operates outside of or beyond ordinary rational, linear ways of thinking and perceiving. Bonding involves what I call primary processing, a biological function of enormous practical value, yet largely lost to technological man.
Marshall Klaus of Case Western Reserve Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, has made the most articulate, thorough, and brilliant study of bonding to date. He has shown how bonding is a carefully programmed instinctual response built into us genetically. The mother is genetically programmed to bond to the infant at his/her birth, and the infant is programmed to expect her response. Indeed, without it, the infant is in grave trouble. Bonding may even involve specific hormones, and breast-feeding may prove one of theist critical factors in establishing the bond.
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