The Science of Mother Love: Is Science Catching Up to Mother's Wisdom?
By Cori Young
A growing body of scientist evidence shows that the way babies are cared for by their mothers will determine not only
their emotional development, but the biological development of the child's brain and central nervous system as well.
The nature of love, and how the capacity to love develops, has become the subject of scientific study over the last decade.
New data is emerging from a multitude of disciplines includign neurology, psychology, biology, ethology, anthropology and
neurocardiology. Something scientific disciplines find in common when putting love under the microscope is that in addition
to shaping the brains of infants, mother's love acts as a template for love itself and has far reaching effects on her child's
ability to love through life.
To mothers holding their newborn babies it will come as little surprise that the 'decade of the brain' has lead science
to the wisdom of the mother's heart.
According to Alan Schore, assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at
UCLA School of Medicine, a major conclusion of the last decade of developmental neuroscience research is that the infant brain
is designed to be molded by the environment it encounters.1 In other words, babies are born with a certain set of genetics,
but they must be activated by early experience and interaction. Schore believes tht most crucial component of one with the
mother, acts as a template, as it permanently molds the individual's capacities to enter into all later emotional relationships."
Others agree. The first months of an infant's life constitute what is known as a critical period - a time when events are
imprinted in the nervous system.
"Hugs and kisses during these critical periods make those neurons grow and connect properly with other neurons." Says
Dr. Arthur Janov. in his book Biology of Love. "You can kiss that brain into maturity."
Hormones, The Language of Love
In his beautiful book, The Scientification of Love, French obstetrician Michel Odent explains how Oxytocin, a hormone
released by the pituitary gland stimulates the release of chemical messengers in the heart. Oxytocin, which is essential during
birth, stimulating contractions, and during lactation, stimulating the 'milk ejection reflex', is also involved in other 'loving
behaviors'. "It is noticeable that whatever the facet of love we consider, oxytocin is involved.' Says Odent. "During intercourse
both partners - female and male - release oxytocin." One study even shows tht the simple act of sharing a meal with other
people increases our levels of this 'love hormone'.2
The altruistic oxytocin is part of a complex hormonal balance. A sudden release of Oxytocin creates an urge toward loving
which can be directed in different ways depending on the presence of other hormones, which is why there are different types
of love. For example, with a high level of prolactin, a well-known mothering hormone, the urge to love is directed toward
babies.
While Oxytocin is an altruistic hormone and prolactin a mother hormone, endorphins represent our 'reward system'. "Each
time we mammals do something that benefits the survival of the species, we are rewarded by the secretion of these morphine-like
substances." Says Odent.
During birth there is also an increase in the level of endorphis in the fetus so that in the moments following birth
both mother and baby are under the effects of opiates. The role of these hormones is to encourage dependency, which ensures
a strong attachment between mother and infant. In situations of failed affectional bonding between mother and baby there will
be a definciency of the appropriate hormones, which could leave a child susceptible to substance abuse in later life as the
system continually attempts to right itself.3 You can say no to drugs, but not to neurobiology. Human brains have evolved
from earlier mammals. The first portion of our brain that evolved on top of its reptilian heritage is the limbic system, the
seat of emotion. It is this portion of the brain that permits mothers and their babies to bond. Mothers and babies are hardwired
for the experience of togetherness. The habits of breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and babywearing practiced by the majority of
mothers in non-industrialized cultures, and more and more in our own, facilitate two of the main components needed for optimal
mother/child bonding: proximity and touch.
PROXIMITY, Between Mammals, the Nature of Love is Heart to Heart
In many ways it's obvious why a helpless newborn would require continuous close proximity to a caregiver; they're helpless
and unable to provide for themselves. But science is unveiling other less obvious benefits of holding baby close. Mother/child
bonding isn't just for brains, but is also an affair of the heart. In the 1992 work, Evolution's End, Joseph Chilton Pearce
describes the dual role of the heart cell, saying that it not only contracts and expands rhythmically to pump blood, it communicates
with its fellow cells. "If you isolate a cell from the heart, keep it alive and examine it through a microscope, you will
see it lose it's sychronous rhythm and begin to fibrulate until it dies. If you put withing a certain proximity, however,
they sychronize and beat in unison." Perhaps this is why most mothers instinctively place their babies to their left breast,
keeping those hearts in proximity. The heart produces the hormone, ANF that dramatically affects every major system of the
body. "All evidence indicates tht the mother's developed heart stimulates the newborn heart, thereby activating a dialogue
between the infant's brain-mind and heart." says Pearce who believes this heart to heart communication activates intelligences
in the mother also. "On holding her infant in the left-breast position with its corresponding heart contact , a major block
of dormant intelligences is activated in the mother, causing precise shifts of brain function and permanent behavior changes."
In this beautiful dynamic the infant's system is activated by being held closely; and this proximity also stimulates a new
intelligence in the mother, which helps her to respond to and nurture her infant. Prettu nifty plan- and another good reason
to aim for a natural birth. If nature is handing out intelligence to help us in our role as mothers we want to be awake and
alert!
"The easiest and quickest way to induce depression and aliencation in an infant or child is not to touch it, hold it,
or carry it on your body." -James W. Prescott,PhD
Research in neuroscience has shown that touch is necessary for human development and that a lack of touch damages not
only individual, but our whole society. Human touch and love is essential to health. A lack of stimulus and touch very early
on causes the stress hormone, cortisol to be released which creates a toxic brain environment and can damage certain brain
structures. According to James W. Prescott, PhD. of the Institute of Humanistic Science, and former research scientist at
the behavioral abnormalities such as depression, impulse dyscontrol, violence, substance abuse, and in impaired immunological
functioning in mother deprived infants.4 For over a million years babies have enjoyed almost constant in-arms contact with
their mothers or other caregivers, usually members of an extended family, receiving constant touch for the first year or so
of life. "In nature's nativity scene, mother's arms have always been baby's bed, breakfast, transportation, even entertainment,
and for most of the world's babies, they still are." says developmental psychologist, Sharon Heller in, The Vital Touch: How
Intimate Contact With Your Baby Leads to Happier, Healthier Development.5
To babies, touch - love and fully loved babies develop healthy brains. During the critical period of development following
birth th infant brain is undergoing a massive growth of neural connections. Synaptic connections in the cortex continue to
proliferate for about two years, when they peak. During this period one of the most crucial things to survival and healthy
development is touch. All mammal mothers seem to know this instinctively, and, if allowed to bond successfully with their
babies they will provide continuous loving touch.
Touch deprivation in infant monkeys is so traumatic their whole system goes haywire, with an increase of stress hormones,
increased heart rate, compromised immune system and sleep disturbances.6
With only 25% of our adult brain size, we are the least mature at birth of any mammal. Anthropologist, Ashley Montagu
concluded that given our upright position and large brains, human infants are born prematurely while our heads can still fit
through the birth canal, and that brain development must therefore extend into postnatal life. He believed the human gestation
period to actually be eighteen months long - nine in the womb and another nine outside it, and that touch is absolutely vital
to this time of "exterogestation."7
Newborns are born expecting to be held, handled, cuddled, rubbed, kissed, and maybe even licked! All mammals lick
their newborns vigorously, off and on, during the first hours and days after birth in order to activate their sensory nerve
endings, which are involved in motor movements, spatial, and visual orientation. These nerve endings cannot be activated until
after birth due to insulation of the watery womb environment and the coating of vernix casseus on the baby's skin.
Recall Dr. Janov's claim that you can kiss a brain into maturity. Janov believes that very early touch is central to
developing a healthy brain. "Irrespective of the neurojuices involved, it is clear that lack of love changes the chemicals
in the brain and can eventually change the structure of that brain."
BREASTFEEDING: Liquid Love
Breastfeeding neatly brings together nourishment for baby with the need for closeness shared by mother and child; and
is another crucial way that mother's love helps shape baby's brain. Research shows that breastmilk is the perfect "brain food",
essential for normal brain development, particularly, those brain processes associated with depression, violence, and social
and sexual behaviors.8
Mother's milk, a living liquid, contains just the right amount of fatty acids, lactose, water, and amino acids for human
digestion, brain development, and growth. It also contains many immunities a baby needs in early life while her own immune
system is maturing. One more instance of mother extending her own power, (love) to her developing child.
LIMBIC REGULATION: The Loop of Love
Another key to understand how a mother's love shapes the emerging capacities of her infant is what doctors Thomas Lewis,
Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon, authors of A General Theory of Love, cal limbic regulation; a mutually synchronizing hormonal
exchange between mother and child which serves to regulate vital rhythms.
Human physiology, they say, does not direct all of its own functions; it is interdependent. It must be steadied by the
physical presence of another to maintain both physical and emotional health. "Limbic regulation mandates interdependence for
social mammals of all ages." says Lewis, "But young mammals are in special need of it's guidance: their neural systems are
not only immature but also growing and changing. One of the physiologic processes that limbic regulation directs, in other
words, is the development of the brain itself - and that means attachment determines the ultimate nature of a child's mind."
A baby's physiology is maximally open-loop: without limbic regulation, vital rhythms collapse posing great danger, even death.
The regulatory information required by infants can alter hormone levels, cardiovascular function, sleep rhythms, immune
function, and more. Lewis, et al contend that, the steady piston of mother's heart along with the regularity of her breathing
coordinate the ebb and flow of an infant's young internal rhythms. They believe sleep to be an intricate brain rhythm which
the neurally immature infant must firt borrow from parents. " Although it sounds outlandish to some American ears, exposure
to parents can keep a sleeping baby alive."
The Myth of Independence
This interdependence mandated by limbic regulation is vital during infancy, but it's also something we need throughout
the rest of childhood and on into adulthood. In many way, humans cannot be stable on their own - we require others to survive.
Recall that our nervous systems are not self-contained; they link with those of the people close to us in a silent rhythm
that helps regulate our physiology. This is not a popular notion in a culture that values independence over interdependence.
However, as a society that cherishes individual freedoms more than any other, we must respect the process whereby autonomy
develops.
Children require ongoing neural synchrony from parents in order for their natural capacity for self-directedness to emerge.
A mother's love is a continuous shaping force throughout childhood and requires an adequate stage of dependency. The work
of Mary Ainsworht has shown that maternal responsiveness and close bodily contact lead to the unfolding of self-reliance and
self confidence.9 Because our culture does not sufficiently value interpersonal relationships, the mother/child bond is not
recognized and supported as it could be.
The ability of a mother to read the emotional state of her child is older than our own species, and is essential to our
survival, health, and happiness. We are reminded of this each time a hurt child changes from sad/scared/angry to peaceful
in our loving embrace. Warm human contact generates the internal release of opiates, making mother's love a powerful anodyne.
Even teenagers who sometimes behave as if they are 'so over' the need for a mother's affection must be kept in the limbic
loop. Children at this age might be at special risk for falling through the emotional crack. If they don't get the emotional
regulation that family relationships are designed to provide, their hungry brains may seek ineffectual substitutes like drugs
and alcohol.
Children left too long under the electronic stewardship of television, video games, etc., are not receiving the steady
limbic connection with a resonant parent. Without this a child cannot internalize emotional balance properly.
Our hearts and brains are hardwired for love, and from infancy to old age our health and happiness depend on receiving
it.
As the research keeps comingin and we gain a gradually expanding vision of how mother love shapes our species, we see
an obvious need to take steps to protect and provide for the mother/child bond. We can take heart knowing that all the while
we carry in our genes over a million years of evolutionary refinements equipping us for our role as mothers. The answer sought
by science beat steadily within our own hearts.
Notes
- Schore, Alen, Effects of a Secure Attachment Relationship on Right Brain Development, Affect Regulation, and Infant
Mental Health, 2001
- Verbalis, J.G., McCann, McHale and Stricker, 'Oxytocin secretion in response to cholecystoknin and food: differentiation
of nausea from satiety.' Science 1986, 232: 1417-19
- Prescott, James W., PhD, Breastfeeding: Brain Nutrients in Brain Development For Human Love and Peace, From Touch The
Future Newsletter, Spring 1997 http://www.violence.de/prescott/ttf/article.html
- Prescott, James W., PhD, The Origins of Human Love and Violence, From Pre and Perinatal Psychology Journal, Volume 10,
#3: Spring 1996
- Henry Holt, 1997
- Prescott, James W., Ph.D , Rock A Bye Baby, Time Life Documentary, 1970, Executive Producer: Lothar Wolff, Scientifi Consultant
(last modified 2001/04/16).
- Montagu, Ashley Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, Harper, 1986
- Prescott, James W., PhD, Breastfeeding: Brain Nutrients in Brain Development For Human Love and Peace, From Touch The
Future Newsletter, Spring 1997 http://www.violence.de/prescott/ttf/article.html
- Ainsworth, M.D.S., "Attachments Across the Life Span." Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 61, 1985
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Resources:
Odent, Michele. The Scientification of Love. Free Association Books/ London/ New York, 1999
Janov, Arthur, The Biology of Love. Prometheus Books, New York, 2000
Lewis, Thomas, Amini, Fari, & Lannon, Richard. A General Theory of Love. Random House, New York, 2000
Pearce, Joseph Chilton. The Biology of Transcendence. Inner Traditions - Bear & Co., 2002
Resources On the Internet:
Alliance For Transforming the Lives of Children: An interdisciplinary group of experts providing excellent informatin and
resources for families and communities, as well as current research in all area of human development. www.aTLC.org
Touch the Future, A Non-Profit Learning Design Center: The guidance of Joseph Chilton Pearce is central to this organization
which provides wonderful information on birth, bonding, childhood development, original play and the brain. In-depth interviews
with a distinguished group of advisors. www.ttfuture.org
Institute of Humanisitc Science: James W. Prescott, Ph,D., former health scientist administrator at the National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development (NICHID), provides research pointing to the origins of peace and violence, and a vast
amount of research on brain development. www.violence.de
Dr. Arthur Janov's Primal Center: Introduction to Janov's work and research, with information about primal therapy. www.primaltherapy.com
Gori Young has been researching human development for nearly a decade, and is currently working on a book about birth and
bonding. She lives on an island in Puget Sound with her husband, Seth, and two daughters, Cedar & Lily.
This article, reprinted here in its entirety with the permission of the author, was originally printed in Mothering
Magazine 2003.
Copyright 2000-2003 Jim Yount
Send email to Paula Yount mailto:paula@mother-2-mother.com for any questions or comments about this site.
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