MOTHERS who use their phones as they breastfeed are causing long-term harm to
their babies.
Experts claim that not only are new mums missing subtle clues about their
tots’ wellbeing, but not making eye-contact with them can lead to
long-term issues.
It’s not uncommon for women to reach for their phones as they feed, perhaps
snapping a ‘brelfie’ at the same time — but one American doctor says
checking Instagram is getting in the way of vital bonding.
Dr Kateyune Kaeni, a psychologist specializing in maternal mental health who
works at Calfornia’s Pomona Valley Medical Center says eye-contact is vital
in building a secure connection between mother and child.
She said: “When babies are first born their vision is only basically from the
breast to the mothers face.
“That’s as far as they can see. So babies do a lot of staring and bonding in
that way.
“If baby is trying to make contact with you by noises or smiles and they can’t
and they learn over time that they can’t rely on you to respond, it runs the
risk of them becoming either anxiously attached to your or insecurely
attached to you and they will ramp up their behavior until you pay
attention.”
She added that a distraction such as a smartphone could mean mums are missing
cues that baby is “full or they’re still hungry or their latch isn’t secure
or if they are having trouble swallowing”.
Worringly, it seems like these handheld distractions don’t begin when a baby
is taken home.
Terry Bretscher, a nurse who works with Dr Kaeni says new mums are often more
preoccupied with checking texts than nursing their infants.
She said: “You assist them latching on and you can see the phone buzzing,
they’re getting an alert or something, and you see their eyes move down and
look at it.
“Sometimes they will actually answer that right then and we go, ‘well let’s
work on this now’.
“It is very hard to bond and talk to the baby if you are on the phone.”