I just had to post about an interesting program I happened to catch over the
weekend. It was on Animal Planet (a channel on cable tv) and was about
Bengal tigers that were bred in captivity and the cubs raised by humans.
They went into some detail with a litter of 4 cubs, from their birth
forward. These cubs were nursed by their mother for 2 weeks, then taken
away from her to be hand raised. At this point, when the next scene showed
the "handlers" bottle feeding them, I turned the channel in disgust. Then a
few minutes later, I came back to it and they were showing the cubs, a few
weeks older, with their handlers. The handler talked about what they had to
do to get these cubs used to being with humans. It started at birth, the
handlers were there, took them as soon as they came out and put them up to
their mother to nurse, talking to them all the while. He said it was
important that they heard the voices of and felt the touch of their handlers
from birth on as important to this "bonding" (their term!) process with
humans. Every day thereafter, they were with these cubs and from 2 weeks
on, took over sole care of them. Feeding them, grooming them, walking and
playing with them, teaching them what behaviors were appropriate and what
was not (when they got too rough playing, biting and such, they would flick
their nose to teach them not to do that. That said the mother would have
been rougher with them). Then he talked about this bonding process. He
said someone was with these cubs around the clock. The cubs would sleep on
them when they napped, and so forth. They learned to depend on them for
survival and to see them as family. All this, he said was important, even
vital, for this bonding process to be complete.
All the while, I'm envisioning newborns in a central nursery crying in their
cribs. Or a 6 week old crying in his crib in the middle of the night.
Alone, because he "has to learn...", a la Ezzo and many parents who
mistakenly believe this is how you 'teach' independence. And day cares, and
working overtime, and all the social issues we deal with today. And it
leaves me wondering. Why do we "get it" when it comes to bonding with baby
animals, but miss the boat so badly when it comes to bonding with baby
humans? This man made a statement that was something like, with the mother,
she would be bonding with them in her way, but we are human and we have to
do it the way we know how! I think he could teach a bang-up parenting
class!
Marsha, in warm, blooming Indiana
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Marsha Glass RN, BSN, IBCLC
Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations
as all other earthly causes combined.
C. Abbot
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