Online Desk:  Mothers enjoy an extraordinary bond with their children. While emotional attachments are a work in progress for the best of mothers, biologically, this connection is undeniable and considerably deeper, both before and after birth.

Remember when the elders said that mothers should remain happy and calm as far as possible during pregnancy? Well, science has come out with explanations that prove them right. While we have always known that a baby finds comfort in a mother’s heartbeat, popular research has shown that a baby feels the same emotions as its mother and with the same intensity thanks to chemical and hormonal signals through the placenta.

A mother’s laughter thus sends joy to the foetus, sadness begets sadness, and unwanted pregnancies can make the foetus feel rejected even before it comes into this world. Fortunately, or unfortunately, all these emotions affect brain development in a child making a mother biologically responsible for her baby’s mental health, all before birth.

Similar, and equally profound connections can be proved during what is known as “foetal cell microchimerism”. In this phenomenon, in rare cases, where a mother’s heart is failing due to what is known as peripartum cardiomyopathy, foetal stem cells can migrate to her heart to regenerate the beleaguered muscle and help her recover.

Meaningful biological connections persist in mothers and their children after birth too. And no, we are not just talking about an exchange of DNA. Just as a child is known to derive comfort from skin-to-skin contact with its mother, a mother is scientifically proven to undergo a complex interplay of oxytocin, dopamine, and opioid systems in her brain when she hears her child cry.

According to research, when a mother hears her baby cry, a symphony of chemical reactions unfolds within her brain, making her instinctually go and comfort her child. Various hormones and neurotransmitters work together in this process, each of them playing a crucial role in encouraging maternal care and consequently, the bond between mother and infant.

COVID mum, Sonia Bari says, “I was in post-operative ICU after my C-section. My son, all twelve hours old, began to cry. I remember waking up from medicine-induced sleep to ask the nurse if it was my baby. There were six other infants in the room.”

Oxytocin, best known as the “love hormone,” takes centre stage in this neurological drama. Research suggests that when a mother hears her baby cry, oxytocin levels surge within her brain. This hormone is renowned for its role in childbirth and breastfeeding and is the hero behind facilitating uterine contractions during labour and promoting milk let-down during nursing.

Beyond these physiological functions, oxytocin also acts as a powerful mediator of social bonding and caregiving behaviour. In response to a crying infant, high oxytocin levels stimulate regions of the brain that are associated with empathy and reward, intensifying a mother’s urge to respond to her child, urgently and lovingly.

Studies have also revealed that elevated oxytocin levels triggered by a baby’s cry can lower stress and anxiety in mothers by calming the effects of cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone. This not only soothes the mother but also promotes a state of emotional readiness in her to tend to her child’s needs effectively.

“I did not have the best support system in my parents’ home after giving birth. Baby blues were not helping the matter either. I remember that skin-to-skin time with my son was probably the only time I felt fully calm. I looked forward to it all day,” reminisces Rajima Shreedhar, now a mother to a four-year-old.

The opioid system that is involved in pain relief and reward further contributes to a mother’s response to her child’s cry. When a mother comforts or feeds her baby, opioid receptors are activated in her brain, inducing feelings of satisfaction and well-being.

There is so much more that can be written about the purely biological connections that a mother and child share. The emotional bond is an entirely different book altogether. Truly, mothers that bring children into this world with the right intentions have nature providing them everything they need within their bodies and minds, to love their offspring more deeply, more purely, and more powerfully, each day.