I finally got around to reading the new paper by Jan Winberg on mother-infant regulation that Fritzi posted the abstract to last week. It's basically a review of the last 30 years of his group's research in this area. I was very excited to read the last paragraph
"Possible Compensations for Time Lost
In view of the findings reported above, how can adoptive parents attach warmly to their babies, and how can parents of premature or sick babies compensate for a long separation? And how can babies survive and develop normally without the regulatory sensory input from the mother, which cannot be replaced by modern technology? One answer can be that innate, genetically determined ''programs'' can be ''closed'' or ''open,'' i.e., the latter can incorporate experience and reason (Mayr, 1974). This has probably been of selective advantage in mammals with a long period of dependence upon parental care. Thus, in humans, cognition and experience may take over the role of neuro-endocrine factors in reinforcing attachment. However, many families are vulnerable and they may be especially helped by the neuro-endocrine support elicited by a close mother-infant body contact in establishing a reliable tie to and in coping with the new family member. But even in animals, environmental enrichment may functionally reverse the long term negative effects of maternal separation (Francis, Diorio, Plotsky, & Meaney, 2002)."

because this reflects my own ideas about why adoptive breastfeeding can be so powerful ie it's "later making up for missed experiences" I immediately thought that I must email Jan Winberg and tell him my ideas but then I was so sad to discover in a footnote that he actually died nearly 2 years ago....I hadn't heard, he was a great researcher who added much to our understanding of the needs of newborns and the ways in which mothers can so efficiently provide for those needs.

Karleen Gribble

Australia







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