Emotions Give Meaning to Experience

Our emotions are what give meaning to and help organize our experiences. All of which contribute to the way the brain develops. Next to breathing air through its lungs, one of a baby’s first jobs is to get attached to mommy. The baby’s emotional and biological system is set up and ready for this attachment. It what the baby was “promised” as it entered into the world.This promise is first realized in pregnancy through the variety of sensory and emotional experiences that already connect a mother and her baby.

• Shared nutrients. Increased risk with a lack of adequate nutrition or worse exposure to toxins , drugs, tobacco and alcohol.

• Favorite foods. The baby develops taste preferences which continues with exposure to breast milk

• Sounds. The baby prefers its mother’s voice

• Emotional states. The baby shares hormones that are triggered from varied emotional states such as stress (cortisol) and joy (endorphins)

• Physical movement. The baby develops movement routines and patterns

• Physical safety. The baby is impacted by physical abuse to the mother

This promise is further realized when the baby is born and the mother continues to have a variety of back and forth interactions with the baby throughout the baby's daily routines.

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