The transition from the consistent warmth of the womb to vacillating environment of the outer world can be very jarring for your vulnerable newborn. By doing your best to recreate your baby’s experience in utero (the “continuum concept”), you can help foster a greater feeling of safety and relaxation for your baby.
How do we do that? It’s simple. Keep. Them. Close. Whether you hold your baby in arms or wear your baby in a wrap or carrier, by keeping baby close, you facilitate bonding with baby through eye contact, vocal cues, skin-to-skin warmth, heart-to-heart connection, and synchronized, rhythmic movements. This bonding practice can be done by the mother, father or any consistent caregiver.
Dancing with your baby has many important benefits for baby such as:
Most hospitals today adopt the accepted practice of Kangaroo Care for preemies. Babywearing is a natural extension of this, strengthening attunement between you and baby. When dancing with your newborn, it’s important to keep your movements simple, gentle and relaxed, focusing more on your presence and your connection than choreography. As we like to say in our GroovaRoo classes, “Your baby doesn’t care how you dance, just how you FEEL when you dance.” Be calm and peaceful when you dance, and in turn, your baby will also feel calm and peaceful.
As your baby develops and grows as an infant, so does her/his social, language and motor skills. You, as the caregiver, can help in the development and growth of these skills, along with the proper development of the infant’s spine and hips, through babywearing dance. Socially, your infant has the opportunity to interact other caregivers as well as observe your interactions with other babies and caregivers, cultivating a deep sense of “family” and social bonding that last long beyond her/his GroovaRoo babywearing dance days.
