A loud and crying baby is the last thing any mother likes to deal with. When but when failed techniques make you lose faith in your parenting style, try to stay calm because a gesture as little as sniffing your little one might do the trick.
Japanese researchers suggest that the scent of your little bundle of joy may be the key to helping you through the first few months of motherhood.
In the study, 38 blindfolded women were given strips of T-shirts worn by newborns, men and no one at all. They then had their brain activity tracked while asked to detect a bodily odour.
The results showed that women with children had a 82% detection rate when presented with the clothes worn by infants. They also underwent changes in the area of the brain responsible for reasoning.
Those without children had only 68% success and showed no changes in brain activity. This could mean that a woman’s brain rewires when she becomes a mother.
Chief executive of the Mumsnet website, said: “We have always known that, contrary to prevailing opinion, mothers are the embodiment of calm and rational thought so it’s pleasing that the scientists now seem to have confirmed it.”
It’s also good to have science behind us.
