Let's go today to interview Ruth Giménez and we will talk to her extensively about the concept of primary health and about the way in which family and professionals can foster it. Ruth Gimenez, to which you can know better in his professional page, is a mother, psychologist, international lactation consultant (IBCLC), doula and educator of infant massage, so that his experience will allow us to understand the primary health from multiple aspects.
You are a psychologist and you work in perinatal prevention, can you explain this concept to us?
Indeed, as a psychologist I work mainly in the perinatal field that is dedicated to the psychological aspects related to conception, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and parenting. The intervention is of course worked whenever necessary, working with the mother or the couple from problems of infertility, anxiety and fears during pregnancy, fear of childbirth, traumatic birth, integration of childbirth, parenting, postpartum depression, adaptation to maternity / paternity, grieving for the loss of the baby, establishing the bond, early childhood development, premature babies etc.
But above all you are mostly oriented towards prevention. Can you explain it to us?
During pregnancy, or even from conception, we seek greater mental and emotional health in both the mother and the baby. More and more research reveals the importance of the intrauterine life of the baby and how the psychological and emotional state of the mother influences him. For example, many studies show how cortisol levels in the pregnant mother affect the baby, this hormone is secreted in situations of stress and anxiety and has been linked to more irritable babies, it has even been shown how the exposure of the fetus to excessive levels of Stress hormones in the uterus, can cause mood disorders in adult life. This demonstrates the importance of working on the mother's mood to prevent future problems in the baby. It is also a fundamental part of our work to work to favor a good establishment of the bond between mother and baby, due to its importance in the mental and emotional development of the baby. All this is to work from prevention.
Does it really favor a safe bond that the birth is a respected and natural moment?
The moment of delivery establishes a neurochemical scenario in the brain of the mother and the only baby and that will never be repeated, there is a cocktail of hormones at an elevated level that are there to favor that at the time of birth mom and baby "Fall in love." Today, much more is known about the mechanism of the link between mother and baby from the moment of birth thanks to the neurobiology of attachment. There are many hormones involved to establish this gear.
What hormones are they?
Oxytocin (the best known), which is the love hormone and facilitates the baby's care behaviors in the mother. Prolactin is responsible for the production of milk and that the establishment of breastfeeding occurs spontaneously. The endorphins are responsible for making that moment of "presentation" between mom and baby as pleasant as possible. Cortisol and some catecholamines are stress hormones, but at certain levels they allow the baby to have a calm state of alertness in which she is born after a respected and natural vaginal birth, necessary to trigger a whole series of reflexes and behaviors that ensure her falling in love with his mother and the establishment of breastfeeding, in addition these hormones ensure that these moments are especially recorded in his mind.
What regulates the production of these hormones?
The production of these hormones, and their exact levels, needs specific conditions to get going. Intimacy, warmth, sense of security and confidence, silence ...
These conditions are only achieved in a respected and natural birth, however today it is still difficult to find them in hospitals. Although "very little by little" the thing is changing, there is still much to do.
What other parenting practices do you advise for the optimal emotional, psychological and health development of the child? Can you explain the reasons for each one of them a little?
Actually any practice that involves the intimate and close relationship between mom and baby. As Bowlby concludes after one of his investigations: “We consider it essential for mental health, that the baby and the small child experience a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with the mother (or permanent maternal substitute), in which both find satisfaction and joy".
We leave the conversation here. Tomorrow we will continue with this Interview with the psychologist Ruth Giménez, who will talk to us about practices that favor primary health and those that harm her. Do not miss it.
In Babies and more | "The oxytocin epidemic could be related to the autism epidemic." Interview with Dr. Emilio Santos (I), Interesting debate on parenting with attachment in La 2, "The debate on children's sleep is also among professionals." Interview with biologist María Berrozpe, "In the medical career they gave us an hour of information on breastfeeding": Interview with Kika Baeza, doctor and lactation consultant
