When Do Babies Recognize Their Mom?
A common fear of every mom is whether or not the baby will recognize her from birth. The bond between a mother and child is sacred, but you still need to get to know each other. After all, this is the first time you have met!
You can feel comfort in knowing that your baby can tell you apart from Daddy, Grandma, or even Great Aunt Phyllis. There are a few different ways that this has been proven! Continue reading if you want to learn more about the different ways that babies recognize their mothers.
The Role of Your Baby’s Senses
Babies can tell their mothers apart by using four of their five senses. At birth, babies can only see eight to twelve inches away. This is usually the distance from breast to face!
They also use their sense of smell to locate their mother. After giving birth, you give off a distinct smell that your baby is designed to look for. If you breastfeed, they can also smell your breast milk from across the room!
Sense of hearing is also important to your little one. They enjoy hearing the sound of your voice and your heartbeat, both things they heard a lot during their time in the womb.
Lastly, their sense of touch is how they determine their mothers. They love being held and coddled, as this can help replicate the warmth and comfort they felt in the womb.
Does My Baby Know Me?
Your baby absolutely can tell the difference between you and someone else. Skin-to-skin is important directly after birth as this helps regulate your baby’s heart rate and skin temperature. Your baby becomes distressed once they are born, so this time between mother and baby is crucial to regulate their bodies. This happens naturally and biologically, but how is this possible?
Placing your baby on your chest immediately after birth not only builds the bond between mother and baby but also calms and regulates the baby. Through a process called thermal synchrony, the mother’s chest will either warm up or cool down to accommodate the baby.
Directly after birth, your baby immediately knows who you are through their sense of sight, smell, touch, and hearing.
Is The Sound of My Heartbeat Important?
Recognizing their mother’s heartbeat is important for newborn babies. They can tell their mother’s heartbeat from others. Not only is it important to distinguish between different heartbeats, but it is also soothing for them. It comforts the baby but also supports healthy fetal brain development.
When Will My Baby Recognize Other People?
Now that we’ve talked about how babies recognize their mothers immediately after birth, it’s time to talk about when they can recognize other significant people in their life. As parents play an important role in any baby’s life, they are differentiated from other people immediately. Mothers are identified right away through almost every sense, but fathers are usually identified through sound. When will your baby recognize their father?
If your baby’s father’s voice is constantly heard throughout the third trimester of pregnancy, your baby should know their voice right out of the womb. Because this is the primary sense that your baby uses to tell mom and dad apart, there are a few other things dads can do to help build that bond:
Skin-to-skin after the mother and baby have initially bonded.
Take turns feeding the baby. If breastfed, the milk can be expressed in a bottle for the dad to help bond with the baby.
Take on care duties for the baby. These can be diaper changes, feedings, and bathtime. Doing these care tasks for your baby will help you build a bond and let them see you as their caregiver.
Babies will quickly recognize the people in their immediate family as they live together and interact daily. Family members such as grandparents, even if seen weekly, will most likely not be recognized until between the ages of six and nine months old. The more that you spend time with a baby, the more likely they are to recognize you sooner. You’ll know if a baby recognizes you as they will give you a big smile and coo happily to see you!
Can My Baby Smell Me?
Just like any other mammal, human babies use their sense of smell to locate their mother. This is an essential sense to identify who their mother is. Mothers will begin to give off a distinct body odor that their baby can locate (I thought I smelled like onions right after giving birth; my husband assured me he didn’t smell anything!). If you breastfeed, your baby can also smell your breast milk from a long distance.
It has been suggested that this powerful sense of smell comes from the constant smell and taste of the amniotic fluid in the womb. Being so close to the mother for so long, babies prefer the smell of their mother’s body odor and breast milk as opposed to others for at least the first few weeks after birth. Because of this strong preference, skin-to-skin is critical not only immediately after birth but throughout early babyhood as well.
Track Your Baby’s Development with Baby Connect
When your baby is first born, it is all about getting to know each other! This is the first time that you are meeting, so of course, you will need to get to know all their needs and preferences. This happens naturally over time, but it will be easier if you keep a record of their schedule!
Baby Connect was designed with schedules and milestones in mind. Instead of struggling to remember when the last feeding or diaper change was, you can easily keep track of this information in the app. All you have to do is input what you think is important to remember about your child’s schedule and look back when you need to recall the information!
