Dr Melodie de JagerB.Prim.Ed, B.Ed, D.Phil (RAU)

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Birth and brain development – a flawless design

The brain, the powerhouse of the human being, starts developing only a few weeks after conception, just as soon as nature has ensured a sufficient oxygen supply. Oxygen and brain development are two dance partners – where the one leads, the other follows. And oxygen leads.

OXYGEN SUPPLYBrain development is reliant on sufficient oxygen supply for the wiring process in the brain and the entire body all the way from the top of the head to the tips of the toes. The tips of the toes are the furthest away from the brain. That is the reason why it takes longer for a baby to walk than to grasp an object. Nerve growth to the toes creates a form of intelligence in the feet that is needed before a baby rolls, sits or crawls. Massage and crawling are brilliant toe stimulations to improve toe intelligence in readiness for walking and a sense of gravitational security.

The slowest parts of a baby to develop are not the distant toes, but the eyes. The eyes are close to the brain, but they are the most complex structures of the entire body and rely on many body parts. The other senses and the baby’s body must develop before the eyes can develop properly. Research has indicated that it takes the eyes 6 to 7 years to develop. That is one of the prime reasons why children should not start reading and writing before the eyes have matured enough to cope with the stress of continued near-point focus (for example in pre-school). But long before the eyes can read, they need a sufficient supply of oxygen to develop. That is why the eyes are vulnerable when oxygen supply in utero and during birth is compromised.

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Brain stimulation As vital as oxygen is to the brain, the brain does not develop without stimulation. Stimulation is what happens when something tickles the senses and the senses send a message to the brain to respond or to ignore stimulation. When the baby responds to stimulation he instinctively starts moving either towards the stimulation (engage) because he enjoys the stimulation, or away from stimulation (disengage) because it is too much, painful or simply scary. The away from response is normally accompanied by loud crying. Movement and a variety of cries are a baby’s first steps towards language development. The towards response is normally accompanied by cooing and gurgling. The second step in brain development in preparation for speech and language is proper feeding.

Stimulation is when something tickles the senses.Stimulation wires the brain, and body and brain wiring normally happens in one of two ways: either through high-intensity experiences such as when stung by a bee, or through repetition such as when you teach a child 50 000 times to say please and thank you, do not put your fingers in the plug point, eat with your mouth closed, do not wake up the baby.

Birth is intense brain stimulationWhen thinking about birth we tend to think of the mother – her pain, her birth plan, her partner, her midwife, gynaecologist, mother, etc. But what about the baby? Birth is about team mother-and-baby. Birth is teamwork. Yes, the mother is actively involved in regulating her breathing, pushing

when she needs to and resisting the urge to push when it is not time yet. She often feels out of control, not rational at all, and that is why her poor partner often has his hands full with one minute being urged to rub her back and the next DON’T TOUCH ME; the one minute GO AWAY and the next WHERE WERE YOU?!? I NEED YOU!

Instinct: predetermined, inherited, motivated behaviour.Birth triggers the mother’s instinct to guide her with the wisdom of all ages to deliver her baby safely into this world, but instinct is not found in the rational brain, it is situated in the lower parts of the brain and exactly where a mother should be when the baby is about to be born. Without the support of her dazzling critical-analytical-verbal-rational brain, the mother is able to switch on her slow and dream-like mommy brain. According to French obstetrician Michel Odent (2001) the key to unlocking the mommy brain, is pain. After extensive longitudinal studies on birth and bonding in mammals and reptiles, South African naturalist and poet Eugene Marais found that where “pain is negligible, mother love and care is feeble”. Not absent, just not as spontaneous. Marais (1939) continues to say that “nature demands payment for all she gives. There is always an exchange.”

A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.

Carl Sandburg

But what about the baby? Birth is probably one of the most intense sensory experiences a baby may ever experience. These hours and hours of intense contractions are not in vain, they prime the baby’s brain to cope

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with the transition from life in fluid to life in air.

Due to the different dimensions of the birth passage, a baby

cannot be born simply as a result of being squeezed or pushed in a

downward direction by its mother. The baby must also be able to

turn, flex and articulate different parts of its body as it moves down the passage. Nature has designed the human baby to be able to do

just this.Sally Goddard Blythe

Contractions = reassuring brain developmental hugsContractions are traumatic but also reassuring, like a comforting hug on a day when you really need one. When a baby is full-term, contractions are the most intense lessons in development the brain can get:• Contractions around the crown of

the head activate the sucking reflex in readiness for sucking for comfort and suckling for sustenance.

• Contractions around the face area stimulate the facial muscles and senses into alertness for the fluid-to-air transition where, instead of the previous protective environment and passive “breathing” and feeding, the baby quickly needs to adjust to breathe and in time feed actively for survival.

• Contractions around the chest area help to expel lung surfactant, “detergentlike molecules that are necessary for gas exchange through the lungs’ tiny grapelike air cells, or alveoli” (Eliot, 2000), while some stress hormones help to absorb excess liquid and contribute to lung maturation.

• Contractions boost the brain and

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nervous system by invigorating the primitive reflexes to enable the baby to adapt to the birth process and make two major turns during his descent through the birth canal (ATNR), stretch out (TLR) (something they have not experienced in months) and wriggle the bottom (Spinal Galant) to move towards life.

• Contractions result in an enormous rise in stress hormones, according to Eliot, a “twentyfold rise in catecholamine levels”. In a baby an increase in catecholamine levels has the opposite effect from the way increased catecholamine levels affect an adult. High levels of catecholamine prime an adult for a heart-racing-muscles-pumping action, while in a baby they slow down heart rate and breathing activities, and even paralyse

certain movements to support blood flow, energy and oxygen to the brain and heart. Temporary paralysis also ensures that the baby does not fight against the instinctive surge to move down the birth canal.

• Contractions are as effective as a deep tissue massage to drain lymph (part of the body’s waste system) and for priming the kidneys for urination after birth.

• Contractions activate “cameras” in the skin, muscles, joints and tendons to forward information to the brain about where body parts are in relationship to the body in readiness for movement into an environment where the law of gravity rules. The “cameras” are proprioceptors – a crucial ingredient for the development of muscle tone. Proprioception and

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muscle tone are two functions that a baby desperately needs for survival, reaching milestones in sequence, a sense of safety and security, independence and six-and-a-bit years later to be able to sit still and learn to read and to write

• When the baby is nearing the exit, stress hormones do an about turn and prompt the fight-or-flight response which triggers his alertness and speeds up the metabolic rate to enable him to better regulate body temperature soon after birth when experiencing cool/cold and dry air for the first time as a being separate from his mother.

Research has shown that 98% of babies are born

healthy.

OXYGEN SUPPLY DURING BIRTHEach time a contraction is experienced there is temporarily less blood flow to the placenta and to the baby. Because oxygen and brain development are two dance partners, nature has ensured that a baby’s brain can endure short periods of oxygen deprivation or hypoxia. Babies naturally compensate for this by releasing more stress hormones that redirect blood flow from the peripheral limbs and organs to the heart and brain. The greatest danger during the birth process is that a baby becomes asphyxiated when carbon dioxide cannot be exchanged for oxygen. This may happen when the umbilical cord becomes compressed and loses its consistency or the placenta is damaged or does not function optimally any longer or the baby’s heart has failed to sustain

enough oxygen-rich blood circulating to the brain. Research has shown that 98% of all babies are born healthy.

According to Goddard (2008) “medical intervention is essential if either the mother or the baby is considered to be at risk, but induction of labour before term or the practice of ‘elective’ caesarean sections for social rather than medical reasons may not be in the long-term interests of the child”.

WHAT ABOUT ASSISTED BIRTH?When things do not go the way nature has intended the baby to enter the world, the repetition principle leads the way to brain development. Natural birth works with the high-intensity principle and assisted birth with the repetition principle. An assisted birth is a birth where the mother or the baby had assistance through the use of drugs or procedures like an episiotomy, caesarean section, use of forceps or vacuum extraction. A baby who has not had the benefit of a natural birth will benefit from –• deep tissue massage to seek touch

rather than avoid touch. When the baby’s lungs needed suction or blood samples were drawn, plasters were removed or tubes inserted, babies may have started to associate touch with pain and avoid contact as far as possible. This makes feeding and bonding very difficult and may compromise breast-feeding completely. At the BabyGym Institute we have noticed a pattern that babies who avoid touch tend to battle with feeding, colic, reflux, projectile vomiting, metabolism and settling into a sleeping pattern.

• swaddling for the first few weeks if he avoids touch. The firmness of swaddling provides the skin

and proprioceptors with positive sensory input which triggers the brain to read the sensory input as positive and soothing. As the parents hold and rock a swaddled baby or Kangaroo Care a baby, the brain reverses its perception of touch as a threat and the heart, breathing rate and entire digestive system relax. When a baby feels safe and secure, the feeding rhythm of suck-swallow-breathe is re-established, the digestive system does not avoid or reject any substance it does not know and the knot in the tummy unravels to leave the baby eager to feed, easy to metabolise, keen to move and ready to sleep.

• BabyGym that was specifically developed to mimic every step of the natural birth process and a baby’s natural development in the first few months. BabyGym is reaffirming for mother and baby where nature has run its course and an instruction manual when mother or baby needs to intensify bonding in the brain developmental process.

PRACTICAL BRAIN DEVELOPMENT TIPS AT BIRTH• Mother, look after yourself while

pregnant – eat well (not too much, definitely not too little), have a walking date with nature every day and breathe in lots of fresh air (oxygen), drink enough water (oxygen), be selective about what you watch, listen to and who you are with (your baby shares your emotional chemistry), give your baby’s happy hormones a boost, get rid of negativity, fears and anxiety before their chemistry take root in baby too, flirt with your husband.

• Dad, you are the man! Enjoy the freedom of your unchanged body, be sensitive to your wife’s changing emotions and slower thinking and especially be sensitive to changes in her body. Avoid comments about her butt/boobs, etc., be ready for the project of a lifetime – the shaping of your little man’s or princess’s mind. Mothers soothe a baby’s brain. Dads develop a baby’s brain. Watch other dads – what do they do and say that inspires you? Save it.

• Massage your baby every day from the top of the crown to the smallest toe.

• Massage the palm of your baby’s hand with your thumb while feeding him to improve the flow of breast milk and his sucking reflex.

• Do not feed an anxious or upset baby, soothe him first by rhythmically tapping with two fingers on his breast bone to calm down the heart and breathing rate before feeding.

• Save the toys for later. Lie back with your chest bare and your baby on his tummy on your chest. Your smell, taste, touch, voice and heart beat are the best brain development a newborn baby can get.

De Jager, M. 2011. Brain development MILESTONES & learning. Johannesburg: Mind Moves Institute. Eliot. L. 2000. What’s going on in there. New York: Bantam books.Goddard, Blythe S. 2008. What Babies and Children Really Need. Gloucestershire: Hawthorn Press.Marais, E. 1939. Soul of the white ant. London: Methuen and Co.Odent, M. 2001. The scientification of love. London: Free Association Books.Otte, T. 2005. Pregnancy and Birth. Cape Town: New Holland.