Baby's First Month
full of movement, healthy development, and some valuable suggestions from BabyMoves' Marianne Hermsen-van Wanrooy
I’m a grandma! Again. We have a seventh grandchild, now a week old, a wonderful blessing for our family. A few years ago, I wrote this while visiting his older cousin.
I’m spending some quality time this summer with our fifth grandchild, a little boy, who is now just three weeks old.
Yesterday, during his diaper change aka playtime, I observed how he seems to love being naked on the changing table, wiggling around and cooing, being happily active then quieting a few moments before squishing up his face for a little cry. While giving him his time to wiggle thoroughly, I glanced around at the lovingly prepared baby’s room and bookshelf to see Marianne Hermsen-van Wanrooy’s excellent book, BabyMoves, facing me. Wonderful! I can study the movement development of a newborn, in real time, with little J.
A newborn’s first job, movement-wise, is to work through his at first totally disorganized movements to become stable when lying on his back. In order to do this, he must spend lots of time lying completely horizontal on a firm surface.
Hermsen-van Wanrooy (I’ll now call her Marianne, since I’ve met her a couple of times now, I don’t think she’ll mind) is a neuro-pediatric physical therapist from Holland, living and practicing in New Zealand. Her observations and experiences in working with thousands of young children has helped her form – and write – clear recommendations for creating the environment for the normal sequencing of natural movement milestones of babies.
A newborn’s first job, movement-wise, is to work through his at first totally disorganized movements to become stable when lying on his back. In order to do this, he must spend lots of time lying completely horizontal on a firm surface. While well-meaning family and friends inundate new parents with the latest gizmos, including a softly firm, nearly horizontal Boppy baby pillow (which looks totally cozy – I’d like one for myself, full-size please), such a lovely gift does not allow the free movements of the baby to be practiced. In a Boppy, or any inclined stroller or car seat, the baby is unnaturally semi-propped, thus hampering the extending and flexing motions the baby must do.
I found that lying horizontally on our backs is important at all ages, even for adults.
Marianne’s Suggestions for the First Month(s)
Do:
Keep him in a horizontal position as much as you can. Almost the only time a newborn should be upright is for burping. When placing him down for sleeping, he should always be placed on his back.
Once a day, however, place him on his tummy on a firm, flat surface, even if he only lasts a few seconds, allowing his arms and knees to be folded underneath him. Let him get comfortable, and leave him on his tummy only as long as he is happy.
Gently rock your baby, either when he is over your shoulder or lying in your arms.
Your newborn will enjoy deep but gentle squeezing of his arms and legs as a form of deep massage. He will prefer this to stroking.
Softly sing and talk to your baby.
It is also important to just let him lie there if he is happy.
Newborns don’t need toys. They need loving hands and bodies, gentle voices to listen to, warmth, sleep and food.
Don’t:
Don’t sit your newborn baby, not even in a bouncinette [a bouncy lounger.]
Don’t stand him up or jump him on his feet.
Don’t hold him and walk him on your knee.
Don’t leave him in a car-seat for longer than absolutely necessary.
Don’t over-stimulate your baby.
Don’t pull him up by his hands.
Don’t put toys in his hands.
Don’t bring his arms forward when you lie him on his tummy.
Takeaways in Real Life
Keeping these tips in mind, little J and I have been having Nanny’s special playtime not only during diaper changes but on the carpeted, baby-blanketed floor when he’s awake and calm. I sing softly, he coos as he kicks and reaches and moves his head, looking around. He sneezes. He spits up a bit. He farts, and poops, a lot, happily. Sometimes he does all at once. It’s funny!
I slowly deep squeeze his limbs. I even experimented (he’s my own grandson, so I do) and introduced him gently to The Silhouette, an exercise from Spacial Dynamics®, adding some slow sequential deep squeezes on both shoulders, arms, and knees/legs (he’s so small that my hand is bigger than his whole leg) which he seems to love.
A few years ago Marianne came through California on a workshop tour, and I shadowed her from San Francisco to Sacramento to glean some more golden nuggets of new information that would enhance my work with children and their parents.
I learned, especially, that lying horizontally on our backs is important at all ages, even for adults.
I began to look at where I can add or accentuate this movement (and the next sequential progressions of natural movement, turning one’s head, then rolling over and getting to standing) into the choreography of games and stories I teach for young children and their teachers and parents. For example, in Hunt the Cows (from our Waldorf Games Handbook) we move from the original choreography on elbows and knees, onto our backs for a few seconds of rest, before calling the song cue to get up and go find the cows.
With young adults with autism at Meristem, our Body Awareness sessions always included that fundamental movement sequence of the first year, moving from the floor to standing. They called it, “Valerie’s Yoga.” After many regular repetitions, most of the students are able to persist and progress with other challenging movement sequences.
Thank you, Marianne, for your research and wisdom. Parents and teachers, have you lain on your backs today?
From August, 2014
Thanks for sharing this info, Valerie!