How to Make Bathtime a Safe, Fun and Nurturing Experience

Introducing a series of videos with valuable tips for bathing new babies. It’s an ideal time to connect with baby.  Safe and effective techniques are demonstrated. Parents and professionals share their insights.

Emotional Value and Health Insights of Bathing Babies

Even babies who dislike baths at first will almost always learn to love this soothing, bonding, healthy experience within a few weeks or months.

Featuring:

Dr. Carolyn Steinberg, Dr. Stefanie Green, Dr. Andrew Macnab, Tammy Timms, Kim Millar Lewis

Your Own Happiness is a Gift to Your Child

Parents may need to put their life goals on hold and look after their own emotional needs so that they can create an environment where their child is connected and secure. Babies are not blank slates but rather, born with tremendous potential for self-realization.  Or self-negation.  Parents may need to deal with their own stress and seek support as needed.

Attachment Patterns have a Multigenerational Aspect

When parents focus on the comfort, security and happiness of their young child, the child benefits and so do future generations.  The human brain develops, not only according to genetics, but largely in response to input from the environment.  In other words, a baby’s capacity for intimate relationships, connection, self-regulation, attention and stress regulation are directly shaped by the emotional availability of the parents. During the critical first three months the right conditions need to be met for healthy brain development. Babies need caregivers who are non-stressed, non-depressed, emotionally available and consistently available.  Babies and toddlers need a safe and low-stress environment.

Featuring:

Dr. Gabor Maté

New Babies are Learning to Deal with their Physiology

Coming into the world is a brand new experience for babies who have to learn to recognize the strange physical sensations they are experiencing for the first time.  Babies can feel uncomfortable with these new physical sensations, and sometimes it’s hard for their digestive systems to work easily. They gain confidence through a positive relationship with caregivers.

Caregivers Learn to Respond to Baby’s Signals

Over the early weeks of life caregivers learn to respond to their baby. You may not know exactly what baby needs, but your efforts and tone of voice will provide reassurance that they can trust someone will be there to look after their needs.

Featuring:

Dr. Carolyn Steinberg

Babies are Born Aware and Expecting a Relationship

Between babies and their parents, social and emotional intelligence and connection will grow through physical contact (such as skin-to-skin contact) and though speech and language.

The Trajectory for Good Development Involves Many Factors

The capacity to love is a reciprocal trust building between two people. Play with your baby, carry your baby, read to them, tell stories and you will be providing the pieces that are most likely to lead to a good outcome.

Featuring:

Dr. Nils Bergman

Young Parents Learn about Themselves During the Pregnancy, Birth and Early Years

Cultivating awareness from moment to moment is part of the miracle of parenthood. Parents are growing along with their baby and learning new things about nurturing relationships.

Early Connections Last Throughout Life

Babies are very much in the present moment and parents should recognize the power of the preciousness of the present moment. Parents should consider how other priorities can wait

Featuring:

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn

Physical Contact Benefits Baby and Mother

Baby massage, as traditionally done in some cultures, promotes brain development in the baby but also releases bonding hormones in the mother and triggers her mothering instincts. It makes the baby feel more secure and the mother more attentive. Touch is also part of the reason why breastfeeding is so important.

Comfort with our Bodies

Our society sees a fairly low rate of breastfeeding and an increase in the Caesarean sections. These signal a genuine discomfort of women with their own bodies. Returning to traditional practices of touch would fulfill a deep evolutionary purpose.

Featuring:

Dr. Gabor Maté

A New Baby is Like a Zen Master

 Babies test us and challenge us to listen deeply to what their true needs are. They teach us what we need to do to provide for a healthy relationship.

Mindful Parenting is an Adventure in Finding Out Who We Are and Who Our Baby Is

 Babies often reflect our characteristics and show us things about ourselves that we didn’t know. Our love for them can be expressed though touch, sound, gaze and motions. Mindful parenting happens when we, like our baby, are fully present and don’t allow anxiety to suppress our joy. You may call on others for information but it’s important to also trust your instincts.

 Featuring:

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn

Your Baby is Not Being Manipulative

 Stress may lead you to the end of your rope, including thoughts that your baby is manipulating you. This is a good time to step back and let someone else take over. Babies are only expressing their needs and it’s not possible to overmeet the needs of a new baby if you listen closely.

Trust Your Instincts

 Babies do need some alone time to learn to self-regulate, but if your impulse is to pick them up and help with their distress, then that is probably the best thing to do. As long as you don’t exhaust yourself, lots of contact is an effective way of meeting the baby’s genuine needs.

 Featuring:

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn

The Positive Impact of Early Nurturing

The architecture of a baby’s brain is built through responsive and interactive relationships with parents and caregivers. When babies are held, touched and spoken to, in a back and forth way, called “serve and return”, from early in life, this fundamentally and positively affects the connections in the baby’s brain and lasts a lifetime. Early relationships prepare a baby to grow to be able to learn, form relationships with others and respond to the world. The first two years of life are critically important.

Critical Periods in Brain Development

Neuroscience and epigenetics teach us that there are windows, called critical periods, in a child’s development when children’s brains are more receptive to experiences and when these take place at the right time, they positively affect the child’s wellbeing and health for the rest of their life.

There is still a message of hope for those who have not had the early nurturing they need. Neuroscience also teaches us that new neurons and new connections between neurons can develop later in childhood and into mid-life, so all is not lost. However, the key message is early nurturing lasts a lifetime.

Featuring:

Dr. Thomas Boyce

Tips for Healthy Social and Emotional Development

This trailer provides an overview of the key messages found in the full-length video “Emotional Safety”. Seven renowned specialists in early childhood share key messages about the importance of early nurture and what you can do to help your child grow to be socially and emotionally healthy.

Ensure Baby Feels Loved, Nurtured, Special, and Safe

Early childhood experts and authentic parents, from many walks of life, including an Indigenous elder, model ways to ensure your child feels emotional safe.

Developed with Vancouver Native Health Society

Special thanks to Nadine Gagné and Children of the Rainbow Drum Group for generously donating their music

 Featuring:

Dr. Evan Adams, Dr. Nils Bergman, Dr. Thomas Boyce, Dr. Adele Diamond, Dr. Andrew Macnab, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Dr. Janet Werker