Relaxed Mum, Contented Baby, this is Babyopathy!
Parenting on Female First
I like to think of Babyopathy as a sensory oasis for you and your baby throughout your pregnancy, birth and beyond. But it doesn’t stop there. Babyopathy is also about nurturing natural development with its roots in the biophiia hypothesis, which is our inbuilt connection to nature that helps development and wellbeing. So, indulge in my sensory world of natural stimulation for babies….
Sight – your baby can see light permeating through the womb, especially during the last trimester and so replicating that peachy/apricot hue they see in the colour of their nursery is hugely comforting and familiar to them and helps to create a sense of well-being. However, as well as being comforting, colour and imagery can also be over-stimulating and a cause of stress so for now keep those bright primary colours in the paint tin!
Sound – one of my favourite ways to stimulate your baby’s natural development is sound! Your baby’s hearing begins its development when the ear buds develop around 9 weeks and continues throughout their pregnancy. By 24 weeks your baby will have their first conscious sensory connection in the womb and you can nurture this by talking and singing to them as much as possible. By the time they are born they will recognize familiar tones and patterns in your voice and be able to recognize mums voice in particular at birth. These tones and patterns also form the beginning of their language skills and so interacting with your baby in the womb is very important. Music too can also be used whilst you are pregnant and especially at bedtime. By using the same relaxation music each night, especially during the last weeks, will help to create the beginnings of a bedtime routine for your baby once born!
Taste – one of your baby’s first comforts will be the milk they drink and the bond they create with you whilst feeding (breast or bottle!). Your baby will have already had experiences of some strong tastes in the wombs with more pungent meals such as curry, garlic or other spices permeating the amniotic fluid. I like to build on these first tastes and also introduce texture from 17 weeks when your baby’s stomach has matured. This means they will have experienced a wide range of tastes, be used to texture and in turn have engaged their mouth muscles and got their stomach used to something other than milk by the time they are 6 months old and ready for their first finger foods. Also, a baby cannot absorb sufficient iron from milk by the time they are 6 months old and so it is vital they are ready to eat the more iron rich foods!
Touch – I am a huge advocate of baby wearing so that your baby feels safe, nurtured and secure from the very beginning. They have come from a cocoon in to a wide-open world and so recreating that comfort zone helps to keep them calm and contented. However, I am also an advocate of a good night’s sleep for mum and baby and so by creating that familiar routine every night from the very beginning you are also signaling the difference between night and day and encouraging a good sleep routine (whenever it emerges).
Smell - essential oils are one of my most trusted elements of the Babyopathy toolkit. We react instantly to smells, some we like, some we hate and some bring an instant memory. My Babyopathy essential oil range has a blend for every stage of the pregnancy journey (even pre-pregnancy), birth and beyond. There’s even an oil blend you can use in a diffuser from the very first night to help reinforce that all important bedtime routine!
About the author
Angela Spencer has owned and operated children’s nurseries for over 25 years – opening her first in 1993 at the age of 21 – and was named in the Top 10 most influential people in Childcare by NMT Magazine in 2017 before finally selling the nurseries in 2018. Babyopathy, Angela’s baby & child development programme, priorities sensory stimulation and was named as Mother & Baby Magazine’s ‘New Routine for 2017. Her new book Babyopathy (2nd Ed.) empowers women to have a positive and relaxed pregnancy and early years.