Today, we talk with Laurel Wilson, TEDx and international speaker, pregnancy and breastfeeding specialist, consultant, educator, and author. Laurel is also the co-author of two books, The Attachment Pregnancy and The Greatest Pregnancy Ever (http://motherjourney.com/books.html). We begin by defining and discussing “the attachment pregnancy” approach to bonding with your child. We talk about how this approach can apply to circumstances such as unwanted pregnancy, disconnection with your child, traumatic birth, or surrogacy, among others. We then talk more about the different ways of bonding with your child, starting with defining and discussing the terms "conscious agreement” and “conscious attachment.” We break down specific things we can do each trimester to help our attachment and bond develop. We talk about how our babies are affected by our emotions while in the womb, and how they benefit from a wide range of emotions, including challenges and effective stress management in the lives of their mothers. We define and discuss epigenetics; how they are affected by the limbic system and our heart regulation, and how they relate to our child’s development. We then talk about the benefits of breastfeeding, and discuss the important nutritional and developmental content that human milk gives to babies. We discuss how the more we become aware of the importance of human milk, the more we will consider options like community milk sharing and other ways to get human milk to more children. We express our gratitude for infant formula and emphasize the importance of parents making educated and informed decisions that aren’t so driven by advertising or society. We talk about how any amount of human milk at any stage is good for your baby, and discuss how knowing the critical developmental periods of your child should guide your supplementing with colostrum. We discuss adoption and induced lactation. To learn more, visit http://motherjourney.com/index.html. 

• 3:00 What is Attachment Pregnancy? 

“We are becoming bonded at an unconscious level, a conscious level, and a physical level. And the more we recognize that is happening, and the more we put a mindful awareness to that, the better off the health of our relationship is with our children…we can start to see that it also has significant impact on long-term health of the baby as well.” 3:30