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"The
key to the Heaven is under mother's foot steps" -A Persian proverb
SUMMARY
The purpose of this
presentation is to provide theoretical and empirical evidence in support
of the following proposition:
"A
bio-psycho-social paradigm of parenthood suggests that the nature has
provided the biological mother with the essential endowment to become
the most adequate caregiver for physical, emotional, and social
well-being of her own offspring."
Support for this proposition is provided by presenting
theoretical and empirical evidence from the following six areas of
scientific knowledge: Evolutionary
theory of differential parental investment, unique advantage of maternal
lactation, sex differences in hormones, the newborn's preference for the
mother's voice, the internal and personal experiences of pregnancy, and
bio-psycho-social factors that promote mother-child attachment.
A
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
1.
Parental Investment:
Based on the life history of the human race, scholars of
"evolutionary psychology" proposed that men and women differ
in their reproductive strategies, and women more often than men make a
greater "parental investment" (defined as any effort to
increase the survival chance of one's own offspring.)
The ultimate purpose of such investment is an evolutionary-based
tendency to preserve one's own genes (DNAs) for passing them to the next
generation (Trivers, 1972). There
are two reasons in support of the contention that the mother is more
likely than the father to make more parental investment.
First, women have always been more certain about their maternity
than men about their paternity. The
higher maternal certainty emerges from the fact that women conceive
internally, and their pregnancy leaves no doubt about their maternity.
In contrast, men cannot be as certain as women about their
paternity because ovulation is concealed to them (in modern times, DNA
testing can make an exception). Second,
under normal conditions, women produce fewer gametes (normally one egg a
month during their child bearing period) than men (millions of sperms a
day during their active sexual life.)
This sex difference in gamete production makes the woman's
reproductive success (defined as maximizing the number of one's own
genes that one can pass to the next generation) more scarce and
therefore more valuable, hence prompting women to invest more in their
scarce resources (Buss & Schmitt, 1993).
2.
Lactation and Breast-Feeding:
The marked hormonal changes of the early postnatal period result
in maternal lactation. Breast-feeding,
the manifestation of maternal lactation, represents the very essence of
maternal behavior. Research
with nonhuman mammals suggests that the prolactin hormone produced
during breast-feeding contributes significantly to maternal behavior.
Breast-feeding provides a unique opportunity in which not only
the biological needs of the infant can be satisfied, but it also offers
favorable moments for physical closeness and psychological intimacy (Leifer,
1980). Evidence suggest
that touching, holding, cuddling, stroking, verbal communication, and
thermoregulation (that are beneficial to the infant's neurological and
psychological development) are likely to occur during the enface holding
of the infant at the time of breast-feeding (Klaus & Kennell, 1992).
Nature has given this unique opportunity to the mother only.
3.
Sex Hormones:
Men and women differ from one another not only by their obvious
physical attributes and reproductive functions, but also by secretion of
differing sex hormones. New
mothers undergo large shifts in hormonal state and other neurochemicals,
characterized by changes in progestrone, estrogen, testostrone,
prolactin, cortisol level, norepinephrine, oxitocin, and the opioid
rewarding system (Flemming, Corter, & Steiner, 1995). Sex hormones not only influence the maternal behavior, but
also contribute to the development of gender specific behavior of the
fetus. From the time of
inception in the mother's womb, sex hormones start to set a different
system of behavioral tendencies in motion that can lead to differently
wired brains in girls and boys (Kimura, 1992).
These sex differences in hormonal secretion, and other
biochemicals early in life produce a sex specific behavioral repertoire
that, under normal circumstances, is likely to follow the individual
like a shadow from cradle to grave.
The maternal system in the female species can be linked to these
biological facts. It is
therefore mostly biology that shapes the destiny.
4.
Infant's Preference for the Mother's Voice: Research findings
indicate that sounds can be transmitted into the uterus, and the fetus
is capable of responding to such auditory stimulation.
The maternal voice is the most intense acoustical signal in the
amniotic environment of the uterus.
Therefore, prenatal experiences with the maternal voice
predispose the newborn to develop a differential sensitivity and a
preferential orientation to the mother's voice.
Examination of the infant's sucking bursts and patterns revealed
that two-days old newborns prefer their mother's voice over any other
human voice and over silence (Fifer & Moon, 1995).
It is therefore obvious that no other individual except the
biological mother can enjoy this preferential advantage.
5.
Experience of Pregnancy:
Pregnancy has been described as a process of maturation for women
(Liefer, 1980). The
physiological changes that occur during pregnancy, and are naturally
experienced by the pregnant women, combined with cognitive and
psychological factors that are associated with pregnancy, generate a
condition that is unique and personal to the expectant mother.
The fertilization, gestation, and placentation are all internal
within the mother who feels that a life is being gradually developed
within her own body. For
example, kicking of the growing fetus becomes only detectable by the
mother as a mild tickling at first, prompting the mother to feel that
something is coming to life inside her body.
This feeling can be the beginning of bonding to her tiny,
emergent baby (Konner, 1991). Fathers cannot enjoy this ecstasy, and this early form of
bonding until a later time. Furthermore,
recent evidence suggests that the uterine environment, nutrition,
physical activities and mental status of the pregnant woman can directly
and profoundly influence the neurological and other organ development of
the growing fetus in the womb. Fathers
have no direct input in these developmental processes at this stage.
6.
Mother-Child Attachment:
Bonding between a child and the mother is described as
"unique without parallel, established unalterably for a whole
lifetime as the first and strongest love-object and as the prototype of
all love relationships-for both sexes" (Freud, 1940, P. 188).
Evidence suggests that there is a window of opportunity shortly
after birth that appears to be optimal for the formation of a strong
affectional bond between the mother and her child.
It has been suggested that during this intense emotional period,
skin-to-skin contact between the mother and her newborn will help to
develop a stronger mother-child attachment with measurable behavioral
consequences (Klaus & Kennell, 1992). The phenomenon of mother-child attachment is best conceived
as the outcome of "a number of instinctual response systems, mostly
nonoral in character, which are part of the inherited behavioral
repertoire of man" (Bowlby, 1960, p. 9).
Studies by Harlow and his colleagues suggest that satisfaction of
biological needs is irrelevant to the psychosocial development of the
young (Harlow & Mears, 1979). The
quality of attachment between a mother and her child, according to the
attachment scholars, can lead to the development of "internal
working models" that lay the foundation of adults' personality and
interpersonal relationships (Bowlby, 1969/1982; Ainsworth, 1985).
The individual's views of self, others and the word as friendly
or hostile are among the outcomes of such internal working models.
Concluding
Remarks
The
aforementioned theoretical formulations and empirical findings suggest
that nature has provided the biological mother with the essential
endowment to become the most suitable caregiver to her own offspring.
The mother's potential influences on the physical, psychological,
and social development of her offspring suggest that there is a kernel
of truth in the popular saying that "The hand that rocks the
cradle, is the hand that rules the world."
I
must also emphasize that the mother's "goodness of fit" should
not be taken, at all, as an argument against the involvement of the
father in caring of his own children.
Evidence indeed suggests that it is to the best interest of the
child that both the mother and the father be in full support of one
another and share the appropriate child care responsibilities for a
healthy psychosocial development of the child (Lamb, 1981).
Finally, it must be added that some prevailing social trends in
technologically advanced societies appear to prevent the infants and
toddlers from enjoying their birth-right to be cared for by their own
biological parents in a natural family environment.
The unleashed liberalism of the Western kind, the extreme
feminist groups, and advocates of "redefining" the marriage,
and "reconstructing" the family provide the fuel to the fire
to achieve their wishful goal to celebrate on the burned graveyard of
fundamental social institutions of marriage, the family, and parenthood.
Medical, behavioral, and social scholars, as well as the state
and spiritual authorities who have taken the head-in-the-sand approach,
by using defense mechanisms of denial, rationalization and projection
are all participants of the 'conspiracy of silence."
Those bystanders who look the other way, and those silent
observers who deliberately choose not to be part of the solution, are
themselves part of the problem. Silence
will fuel the flames.
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