Family & Parenting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Family & Parenting - Essay Example Applied to humans, emotions and the attachment relationships are sought more than biological needs. Meredith Small reports that mothers are biologically predisposed to care for their infants. Nine long months in the womb, the fetus affects the mother and its dependence on her likewise affects her. For example, a stressed mother can hinder the normal brain processes of brain masculinization of her unborn child. T. Berry Brazelton, a prominent child psychologist claims, in a good interaction mother and baby synchronize with each other from the beginning, and that the pathways may be set up in intrauterine life ready to be entrained, especially by the mothers, immediately after birth" I agree with Harriet Smith when she claims that whatever the biological forces, parenting style is more influenced by other factors. Inexperienced mothers may not necessarily know how to care for their newborn infants automatically, but can learn it from observation of other mothers caring for their young. This gives hope to parents who doubt their parenting skills as inadequate. Cases of adoptive mothers or caregivers other than the birth mother developing an attachment to the infant are widespread. It just proves that an infant may be responsive to, and form attachments to persons who provide him with all his needs. Biological connections between mother and child if present at birth may or may not be sustained. If mothers and infants are physically distanced, then this connection is disrupted. A child’s well-being is dependent on secure attachments combined with basic competencies in parenting like reading a baby’s signals for food, comfort, need to be held or worse, need for medical intervention. Biological studies indicate that when human babies are born, their brains are underdeveloped, hence are â€Å"born highly dependent and inconstant need of care.† Unlike other mammals like horses