Separation After Childbirth
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
The bond parents make with their children after birth is crucial to ensuring strong brain
development and adaptation to the new world around them. A newborn child may have
imprints of separation when they’re taken away from their parents after birth. Whether it
be to get washed, measured and weighed, or other forms of testing, a newborn child
being separated from their parents, even for just a short period of time, can lead to
childhood trauma.
Premature babies, for instance, are separated from their parents and are cared for in
neonatal intensive care units. Twenty or forty years ago these facilities weren’t designed
to keep close contact between parents and their children. Parents had perhaps a few
hours a day to visit and spend time with their child. Children might have been separated
from their parents for weeks or even months. However, nowadays most neonatal units
are more focused on ensuring parents bond with their child frequently and in close
proximity, as research has shown the importance this bond has on early childhood
development. A strong parent-child bond requires love, comfort, warmth and
connection. The child will hold onto these attributes as they grow and will eventually
pass them along to their children.
If pain and isolation are present from the start of the child’s life, and these feelings are
left untreated, the child could perceive this as their “norm” and always remember the
the pain of the separation from their parents. Sadly, newborns who spend more time with
machines, lights and incubators, rather than with their parents, will become closer to
machines rather than people.
The following often occur later in life for newborns that are separated at birth from their
parents for an extended period of time: