While cuddling is a fun bonding activity for new parents, it actually plays a larger role when it comes to your newborn’s development!
Cuddling helps save lives
As most parents know, early infancy is one of the most crucial times when it comes to their baby’s development. According to a number of studies, babies who are cuddled a lot during the first few months of their lives have higher levels of oxytocin and vasopressin, hormones that are connected with emotion and social bonding.
Additionally, for premature babies, cuddling helps strengthen the systems of their body that are sensitive to physical presence. This leads to higher survival rates among preemies, and also helps them catch up with other babies in terms of their development. In short, cuddling helps save lives.
Another important point is skin-to-skin contact between the mother and the baby. Giving the mother a chance to hold her baby right after the baby is born can help strengthen the bond between the mother and the child, it also makes it much easier for the mother to breastfeed her child.
Cuddling helps babies sleep better
In addition to the developmental benefits of cuddling, it also helps babies sleep better, since studies have shown that babies who are constantly cuddled have more predictable sleep patterns and steadier breathing and heart rates.
The amazing thing about cuddling is that you don’t have to cuddle your baby for hours on end for them to reap the benefits of cuddling. Just one hour a day of cuddling is enough to produce noticeable positive effects. Of course, it would be better if you can try to cuddle your baby as much as possible!
It also has benefits for the parents, since cuddling their child helps them relieve their stress, and makes them more calm and relaxed.
So go cuddle your newborn right now, and reap the amazing and super sweet benefits that you and your baby can get from the simple and loving act of cuddling.
Sources: scientificamerican.com, time.com
READ: Volunteer cuddlers needed to cover newborns in orphanages with love
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