There’s a silver lining to being away from Dante for the workday, even though those handful of hours are quite agonizing and I have to make do with pictures of him plastered all over my work console…. that moment when I go to pick him up and I just pick him up for a bear-hug cuddle and inhale, deeply. Ahhhhhh my baby! Even though he may smell like sour milk, or worst case scenario a doody-diaper. Ewwwww. Even still, there’s a moment when you get that whiff of babe and all is right again in the world.
There’s something to be said for the smell of baby, and science now confirms it…
THE SMELL OF A BABY CAUSES PLEASURABLE BRAIN REACTIONS IN THE MOTHER:
New research finds the smell of a newborn baby is actually a chemical communication between mother and child that causes a reward response in the brain of the mother. Canadian researchers explain, “These circuits may especially be activated when you eat while being very hungry, but also in a craving addict receiving his drug.”
To find this, researchers had two groups of 15 women sniff pajamas with the scent of a newborn while having their brains scanned. One group of women had given birth within six weeks and the other group had never had a baby.
Researchers say the mothers showed a dopamine increase as they sniffed the pajamas while non-mothers did not have as much of a reaction. Researchers say the results showed the odor of newborns plays a role in the development of motivational and emotion responses between mother and child by encouraging maternal care functions such as breastfeeding and protection. (Daily Mail)
