Educational Resources 

Bonding and relationships

To learn about relationships, baby needs his mother as his primary caretaker. The trust he learns allows him to be able to separate from her and develop other relationships later in life. A father is usually baby’s first extended relationship. Within this relationship, baby learns differences in voices and sounds and smells, being held and cuddled, and being comforted. This relationship is built when the father takes on some of the baby’s care. In addition to bonding and building love, the father learns parenting skills by interacting with baby in this way.

Often when we think of bonding, we imagine a mother and her child gazing intensely and contentedly at each other with no thought of the father. Fathers also bond with their infants. Bonding is the result of a continuing interaction between the baby and the parents which forms the relationship. Fathers as well as mothers can hold babies face-to-face, talking to and touching them. This growing attachment helps baby and father to form a close relationship and helps father adjust to his new role.

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