Many people, even when they are older, agree that they remember their mother’s scent, and that smelling their mother’s clothes or smelling her directly gives them a feeling of warmth and security.
This sensation occurs from birth, since babies come into the world prepared with a survival instinct thanks to which they are able to find their mother only by smell . If the baby is placed immediately after birth on its mother’s abdomen, the newborn is able to crawl instinctively to her breast to feed only guided by its smell.
Babies learn their mother’s scent before they are born
Scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (United Kingdom) investigated what leads the newborn to detect this unique and characteristic smell of each mother .
And they found that it is something they learn before they are born. During pregnancy, the baby is exposed to the smell and taste of the amniotic fluid in its mother’s womb, creating an imprint on her brain.
They found that pheromones, chemicals that trigger innate behavior, drive the breastfeeding response as an automatic behavior.
The scent of a mother has powers
Children are born with a highly developed sense of smell that is superior to that of adults. This level of development is explained from the need to ensure adequate food as soon as possible.
Such is the power of a mother’s scent and the survival instinct that binds it to her, that:
- If a woman washes one of the two breasts, the baby will prefer to suckle the one that maintains the body odor of its mother, the one that has not been washed.
- If an object with the scent of its mother is placed on one side and an object with the scent of another woman is placed on the other, the baby turns its head towards the one that preserves the scent of its mother. In this case we are talking about the smell of his mother, not exclusively the smell of mother’s milk.
- When a breastfed baby is hungry at night, he is able, even without light, to go to the breast and begin to suckle guided by his smell.
- When the baby cries, he is able to calm down when mother hugs him and feels his particular smell, which provides comfort and security.
Once their motor skills are being perfected and the rest of the senses are gaining prominence, smell is lost due to disuse.
The real dangers of today that can be detected with the smell are few, and therefore the rest of the senses, probably more used, acquire greater relevance.
Due to the importance of the smell of a mother in the first stage of life, the recommendation, both for the father and the mother, and especially for her, is to avoid colognes and perfumes that add artifacts to the natural smell of the skin.
In this way, the baby will have an imprint in the form of a scent that he will remember for a long time (even until adulthood), that mother’s scent that provides security, warmth and love.
In Babies and more | The first hour of life is sacred to mother and baby
