Clinton – fathers and babies

I’m hugely pleased, I think we all are hugely pleased to see, one, the attention on fathers and the role of fathers in raising children, that that’s being much more highlighted.  In our society, women were more traditionally home with babies and so they were more studied.  But now as we see dads spending more time, people are saying well, what’s the relationship like with dad?   

We know mom’s brain changes when she has a baby, all of the biology changes.  Well what are the brain changes that happen in dad’s brain, you know, as he interacts with the baby?  Are there things happening there?  And we are finding out wonderful things that, yes, there absolutely are things that happen in dad’s brain as well.  The ‘I know you’, the interacting, the oxytocin, there’s all kinds of very neat systems.   

And it’s great to be learning about because the male brain and female brain are different. Dads interact with babies typically in a different way.  You know, if a mom sees a baby, they may go oh, hi honey, how are you?  But a dad, this is Dr. Berry Brazelton talks about – dads – they come in and they energize the baby.  You know, the baby is sitting in the car seat, the dad will go, they’ll you know, poke them in the belly and all the way up. Wow, this is wonderful, this is activating the baby.  Mom soothes the baby. The baby’s two systems are being built.  Now that’s not to say that while if you’re a single mom or a single dad that you know you’re baby is destined for difficulty.  No, definitely not.  But it may be that you want to be thinking about expanding your circle so that there are, that babies do get exposure to both men and women who are crazy about them, whose eyes light up when they see them.