Attachment parenting
Attachment parenting is a parenting philosophy that proposes methods aiming to promote the attachment of mother and infant not only by maximal parental empathy and responsiveness but also by continuous bodily closeness and touch. The term attachment parenting was coined by the American pediatrician William Sears. There is no conclusive body of research that shows Sears' approach to be superior to "mainstream parenting".
History
Context
Although the term "attachment parenting" was first used only in the late 1990s, the concept is much older. In the United States, it became popular in the mid-20th century, when several responsiveness and love-oriented parenting philosophies entered the pedagogical mainstream, as a contrast to the more disciplinarian philosophies prevalent at the time. Attachment parenting owes many of its ideas to older teachings, such as Benjamin Spock's influential handbook The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. Spock had advised mothers to raise their infants according to their own common sense and with plenty of physical contact – a guideline that radically broke with the preceding doctrines of L. Emmett Holt and John B. Watson, which recommended discipline and emotional distance. Spock's book became a bestseller, and his new child-rearing concept greatly influenced the upbringing of the post-war generations.Thirty years later, Jean Liedloff caused a stir by a "continuum concept" that she presented to the public in a book of the same title. In Venezuela, Liedhoff had studied Ye'kuana people, and later she recommended to Western mothers to nurse and to wear their infants and to share their bed with them. She argued that infants, speaking in terms of evolution, have not arrived in the modernity yet, so that today's way of child care – with bottle feeding, use of cribs and baby carriages, etc. – does not meet their needs. Later, authors such as Sharon Heller and Meredith Small contributed further ethnopediatric insights.
In 1984, developmental psychologist Aletha Solter published her book The Aware Baby about a parenting philosophy that advocates attachment, extended breastfeeding, and abstinence from punishment, similarly to what William Sears later wrote; however, the point that Solter stressed most was an encouragement of the child's emotional expression to heal stress and trauma.
In the 1990s, T. Berry Brazelton invigorated the discussion. He contributed new research about the capacity of newborn infants to express themselves and their emotions, sensitized parents for these signals, and encouraged them – just like Spock – to follow their own judgment.
Controversy
Since 2012, there has been a controversy about Sears' positions which has been mostly carried out in the English-speaking world.It began in 2012 with a cover picture on Time magazine that showed a Californian mother breastfeeding her almost 4-year-old. In the accompanying article "The Man Who Remade Motherhood", journalist Kate Pickert tried to argue that even if William Sears' positions are much less radical than those of his followers, they are 'misogynistic' and give mothers a chronically guilty conscience, and that they frequently disagree with relevant research results. The cover picture and article became the starting point of disputes in many media, criticizing Pickert.
At the same time, attachment parenting attracted attention of sociologists like Ellie Lee, Charlotte Faircloth, Jan Macvarish, and Frank Furedi who described the phenomenon an example of 21st century "Parental Determinism". As early as in 1996, sociologist Sharon Hays had described the sociocultural phenomenon of an "Intensive Mothering"; with attachment parenting, this phenomenon finally became tangible and recognizable. In 2004, media critic Susan J. Douglas and philosopher Meredith W. Michaels followed with their account of a "New Momism".
''Time'' cover picture and article
The Time magazine cover picture and article were published May 21, 2012.Origin
William Sears, a pediatrician, came upon the term "attachment parenting" in 1982 by reading Liedloff. Initially, he referred to his new philosophy as "the new continuum concept" and "immersion mothering". When he published his book Creative Parenting in 1982, the concept was largely elaborate already. The "7 Baby-Bs" were not explicitly presented as a canon yet, but as basic elements of a new parenting philosophy, they were distinctly clear even at that early point. In 1985, William Sears and his wife Martha Sears began to link the concept – ex post – with attachment theory which they had begun to recognize at that time. From then on, they used the term "attachment parenting".In 1993, William Sears and Martha Sears published The Baby Book which became the first comprehensive manual for AP-parents and which was occasionally dubbed "the attachment parenting bible". The first attachment parenting organization, Attachment Parenting International, formed in 1994 in Alpharetta, Georgia, and was founded by Lysa Parker and Barbara Nicholson. The first book that carried the term attachment parenting in the title was written by Tammy Frissell-Deppe, a mother who gave an account of her personal experiences and of those of her friends and acquaintances. In 1999, blogger Katie Allison Granju followed with another book, to which William Sears contributed a foreword, before he, together with Martha Sears, published his own work, The Attachment Parenting Book in 2001. All three books stood – with their opposition against a crude behavioristic infant anthropology – in the tradition of Spock, but radicalized the concept of a contingency-oriented parenting on the one hand, and incorporated Liedloff's idea of an instinct-guided resp. "natural" childrearing on the other hand.
In the same year as Sears and Sears' Attachment Parenting Book, Jan Hunt published her essay collection The Natural Child. Parenting from the Heart. Hunt who sees herself as a child advocate, campaigned in this book not only for attachment parenting, but also for unschooling. A more recent AP proponent is parenting advisor Naomi Aldort, who published her book Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves in 2006.
In practice
Baby Reading
Consistent with the founders of attachment theory, especially Mary Ainsworth, William Sears teaches that a strong mother-child-attachment emerges from contingency, that is, when mother and child are attuned to each other, which in turn is based on the mother's sensitivity. Since the mother "reads" the signals of her infant, Sears speaks in this context of "baby reading". Another metaphor that he uses is "to be in the groove".The Seven B's
William Sears strongly believes in the existence of child rearing practices that support "baby reading" and that augment maternal sensitivity. The methods of attachment parenting include seven practices/principles that according to Sears form a "synergetic" ensemble and that are based on the child's "biological needs".- Birth bonding
- Breastfeeding
- Baby wearing
- Bedding close to baby
- Belief in the language value of your baby's cry
- Beware of baby trainers
- Balance
Birth bonding
William Sears postulates the existence of a brief time slot immediately after birth during which the newborn is in a "quiet alert state" and particularly accessible for bonding. He refers to this birth bonding as "imprinting" and bases himself on a study by Drs. Marshall Klaus and John Kennell from 1967; however, Klaus and Kennell later modified their original assumptions, including the one cited by Sears. Sears advises women to abstain from analgesics during childbirth, since those drug the child, too, and according to Sears interfere with the birth bonding.Breastfeeding
William Sears argues that breastfeeding greatly accommodates mother-child-attachment because it triggers the release of oxytocin in the mother which supports her emotional bonding with the child, notably in the first ten days after childbirth. In opposition to bottle feeding which tends to be done in three to four hour intervals. Breastfeeding enables the mother to perceive the child's moods and needs exactly. Since the half-life period of the hormones prolactin and oxytocin are very short, Sears recommends to breastfeed very frequently, newborns in particular. He claims that the hours between 1 am and 6 am are the most beneficial for breastfeeding. In general, Sears argues that breastfeeding is beneficial for the health of both child and mother. He claims that infants up to six months should be exclusively fed with breast milk, since he believes that, at that age, children are allergic to all other foods.William and Martha Sears advise mothers to breastfeed every child for 1–4 years:
William Sears advocates extended breastfeeding, since he is convinced that breastfeeding supports attachment even of older children and that it is a valid instrument to comfort older children or to bring mother and child together on turbulent days. Neither does he object nighttime breastfeeding of toddlers. As early as in 1992, Norma Jane Bumgarner had campaigned for extended breastfeeding.
Sears' recommendations are in accordance with the WHO guidelines on breastfeeding, which recommend exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months and complementary breastfeeding in the first two years for all countries.
Since breastfeeding studies are, for ethical reasons, never conducted as randomized controlled trials, critics have repeatedly suspected that studies may have produced the superiority of breastfeeding as an artifact. Both the physical, emotional and mental development of children and the preferences of women for a feeding method are strongly determined by socioeconomical factors such as the mother's ethnicity, social class, and education. If researchers go without randomization and turn a blind eye to those possible alternative factors, they fundamentally run a risk to falsely credit the feeding method for effects of socioeconomic factors. A loophole from this problem was first presented by Cynthia G. Colen, who successfully factored out socioeconomical determinants by comparing siblings only; her study demonstrated that formula fed children showed only minimal differences to their breastfed siblings, insofar as their physical, emotional and mental thriving was concerned.
William Sears' assumptions about the benefit of breastfeeding for the attachment have been studied. In 2006, John R. Britton and a research team found that highly sensitive mothers are more likely than less sensitive mothers to breastfeed and to breastfeed over a long time period. However, the study showed no effect of the feeding method on the attachment quality.