Hi, my name is Sally Oistad and I am a Junior 2 nursing student at the University of North Dakota. OB is the area that I am interested in and I wish to go into and, since breastfeeding is such a huge topic in this field, decided to do some research on breastfeeding and the bonding experience. I have heard many mothers talk about how breastfeeding creates a type of special emotional bond between themselves and their baby and how it is such a warm and loving time for the two of them. Bonnie Cox (1994) stated that is has been shown that immediate skin to skin contact between the mother and her child improves maternal infant bonding. But this got me asking myself why? Is it just simply the contact created between mother and child, or is there actually some type of stimulation that occurs to cause this bond? Also, does the time spent on the breast have any related factors to the strength of this bond? Some research conducted (Barrera, Ceriani Cernadas, Garsd, Martinez, and Noceda, 2003) concluded that the time spent on exclusive breastfeeding was highly correlated with positive maternal attitudes toward breastfeeding, adequate family support, and good mother-infant bonding. It also suggested that the mothers that had very good bonds with their babies had spent a much greater amount of time exclusively breastfeeding their babies than those mothers that simply had good bonds. Besides the contact and duration factors, I found research stating that the hormone oxytocin, which helps to control milk ejection during breastfeeding, helps to encourage the bond between the mother and her child (Eriksson and Uvnas-Moberg, 1996). This article also talks about how breastfeeding mothers state that they are calmer and experience less anxiety and aggression than non-lactating women. I was wondering if you nurses had any other current knowledge on this subject, or if there is any other information you could share from experiences you've come across? Thank you, Sally Oistad Student Nurse University of North Dakota Barrera, L., Ceriani Cernadas, J., Garsd, A., Martinez, A., Noceda, G. (2003, January). Maternal and Perinatal Factors Influencing the Duration of Exclusive Breastfeeding During the First 6 Months of Life. Journal of Human Lactation, 19 (2), 136-144. Cox, Bonnie. (1994, May). Culture and Attitude of Birth Caregivers. International Journal of Childbirth Education, 9 (2). 13-15. Eriksson, M. Uvnas-Moberg, K. (1996, May). Breastfeeding: physiological, endocrine and behavioral adaptations caused by oxytocin and local neurogenic activity in the nipple and mammary gland. Acta Paediatrica, 85 (5), 525-530. _________________________________________________________________ Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html