On hearing the term “Immersion Parenting”, the picture one gets in their mind is a hippie mom, wearing the baby in a drape, breastfeeding the baby on demand and co-sleeping with her infant. One gets partly the picture correct here. William Sears coined the term immersion parenting, meaning the process of close bond creation with one’s baby. The concept revolves around being responsive towards one’s baby cues. All parents ultimately want to achieve this, right from the stage of breastfeeding to bottle feeding and even beyond it. The benefits of it are long term for the child, creating a healthy emotion bond between baby and mother. Following are few major reasons to deliberate about this.
- Joy of having a happy baby: No cry of baby means more peaceful sleep hours for mom. The process of attachment parenting or immersion parenting is keeping the baby, happy and calm; this can be achieved by breastfeeding, cosleeping and babywearing. The best part being babies enjoy their cuddles as much as parents enjoy their baby happy. Research has concluded that babies when attended properly cried less often
- Chill baby: long periods of crying can be stressful for parents as well as the baby. Getting exposed to stress in early life, can have adverse effects the child’s physical and emotional health. The loving touches and interactions in immersion parenting help baby to stay calmer. Where parents are near, research has concluded infants remain calm and don’t get stressed.
- Popular Baby: Infants, who build a strong connection with parents in early stages of life, tend to grow more social and kind. According to Dr. Strosaker, “Individuals who in early age successfully build strong trusting and close parental connections, in later part of their life, have easy time managing relationships”.
- Soon become Independent: Unlike the myth associated with immersion parenting, the children here become less clingy and more independent when attached securely. In the initial period of life they might seems clingy but that is a part of healthy growing. The whole process makes them ready for life and gives them the courage to face the world.
- Better education: Frequent research have shown that, a close knit family’s child will generally have a higher intelligent quotient than those who come from not a close knit family. In early stage, with a clam and stress free brain development, children tend to become sharper in life, they are more easily able to achieve optimal in learning and thriving.
Above are some major advantages of immersion parenting, this is a team work of both the parents, making sure that their children are provided with a healthy and emotionally positive growing environment. The whole process also gives the parents the experience of peaceful parenting, creating a mutual sensitivity, better interaction, shaping of behavior for betterment and development of both parent and the child.