An Ode to That Sweet Baby Smell
There's a reason you can't get enough of it...
It’s intoxicating and nobody can deny it...
All newborns smell sweet, and their heads smell especially sweet. Now I know that things like diapers can come along and make your baby smell a little cheesy, or, well, not so sweet. But for the most part, a baby’s head smells intoxicatingly good.
The smell of your baby’s head is especially important in the moments following his or her birth. Mothers who hold their babies and nuzzle their nose into baby’s head experience a huge spike of the mothering hormone, oxytocin. Your baby’s signature smell imprints your baby onto your mind and your heart, literally.
You, as a mother, can identify your baby based on smell alone. Your baby can also identify you (and your milk) on scent alone. It doesn’t matter how many other babies and mothers there are, smell sets you apart as a mama and babe (Daddies can also identify their babies by smell).
As oxytocin rushes between you and your baby, you fall more and more in love. Studies show that oxytocin actually causes us to be better mothers! This is true even if you don’t feel like you “know how to mother” due to your own upbringing or just anxiety. Oxytocin is triggered by physical touch and breastfeeding, but that first rush comes from smell!
Pheromones, those mysterious hormones that transfer from person to person, are also active at your baby’s birth, and while you’re nuzzling into your sweet-smelling baby, those are transferred back and forth. Though some animals show pheromones to be exclusively responsible for breastfeeding, and some show smell to be exclusively responsible, in humans there seems to be an orchestration of both.
The smell signals of your baby go right to your brain. They don’t need to be translated by any nerve signals or chemical messengers as information from your other senses are. Smell and pheromones are raw and make it right to your brain - each activating different parts of your brain. And your unique smell literally “fires up” your baby’s brain. Smell, though often ignored is powerful.
What’s the takeaway? Cherish your baby’s smell. Bring baby up to your chest after birth (it’s okay if you stare in awe for a minute at the babe you just birthed before putting him/her on your body). Nuzzle into your baby’s head and breathe deeply. If a hat gets put on baby, take it off. Ask for a blanket over both of you. Decline a bath for your baby. If you shower to rinse yourself off, don’t use soap on your nipples - or your armpits! Use warm water :) Both have important scents and pheromones that developed during your pregnancy just for your baby.
What if you didn’t have this special time with your baby? It’s not too late. I could still smell that intoxicating baby smell on my babies’ heads for months after... most children smell sweet for a reason. Wrap your arms around your little one and relax. Breathe that scent in. Lounge back as you nurse and just enjoy the scent. You both get a great oxytocin boost.
Snuggle up with that babe and smell the sweetness!
