A recent study suggests that the longer the mother breast feeds her new born baby, the stronger the bond with her child.
In the United States, this 10-year study found that mothers in 1300 families, who breast feed their children had more maternal attachments to their infants and toddlers.
Researched said that new moms breast feed for an average of 17 weeks. Nearly 29% of the mothers did not do breast feed at all. Researchers periodically interviewed their families until their child tuned 11.
Maternal bond includes how responsive a mother is towards her child, her emotions for the baby, how flexible she is with her baby, and how efficiently she understands the gestures of her baby.
“It was surprising to us that breast-feeding duration predicted change over time in maternal sensitivity,” said the study author Jennifer Weaver, Boise State University in Idaho. She further added, “We had prior research suggesting a link between breast-feeding and early maternal sensitivity, but nothing to indicate that we would continue to see effects of breast-feeding significantly beyond the period when breast-feeding had ended.”
The researchers investigated that it is the smell of the baby that makes the bond stronger. Nevertheless, breast feeding may be one of the ways to strengthen this bond between the mother and child, as suggested by Weaver.
