The Neuroscience of paid parental leave
Observations
Having parents present is crucial during an infant’s first weeks of development—but institutions that train physicians don’t always seem to care
The Neuroscience of Paid Parental Leave
By Daniel Barron on October 30, 2017
Credit: Halfpoint Getty Images
As a new father, I’ve learned that the U.S. ranks at the very bottom of industrialized nations for paid parental leave. Denmark offers a year. Italy offers five months. France offers 16 weeks; Mexico, 12 weeks; Afghanistan, 13. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center analysis of 41 countries, the U.S. is the only one to offer zero paid parental leave.
It is easy (and likely accurate) to assume that paid parental leave policies are a nice gesture to help exhausted, stressed-out parents have the time and resources to figure out how to care for an infant. Perhaps this is why it is often bundled with leaves for tending to a sick family member. But the focus should more directly on the infants themselves, with parental leave being a necessary measure to insure infant health during a critical period of brain development.
THE NEUROSCIENCE OF PARENTAL LEAVE
What happens to the infant shortly after birth drastically alters his or her brain. Postnatal brain maturation is enormous in scope. Each day, tens of thousands of new synapses are formed. Genetic programs guide the birth of these synapses, but what signals the infant’s brain receives from the eyes, ears, skin and other senses sculpt how the brain’s functional anatomy is ultimately organized and implemented. Frequently used synapses form stronger, more efficient connections that coalesce into networks. Unused synapses die off. This is not an example of “use it or lose it,” but rather “use it or it never will be.”
The visual system, for example, simply cannot form in the absence of visual input. Ocular dominance columns, the neural centers in the visual cortex that process binocular vision, require visual stimulation from both eyes within a critical period, which is why infant cataracts are aggressively and quickly treated. Emotion and cognitive systems also do not form properly in the absence of specific inputs. Here, a parent’s caress, the melody of a mother’s voice, the smell of a father’s chest is incarnated, engineered into the cognitive foundation that the infant will use to make sense of the world. Brain development is why the parent-child relationship is so important—you can keep an infant warm and nourished without it, but their brain won’t develop properly.
Attachment describes what the infants’
brains infer about their parents and how children should behave to get what they need. When parents are consistently present and respond to distress promptly and with reassurance, infants
infer a secure and organized attachment. Behaviorally, infants learn that they can express negative emotions and this will bring about comfort from their parents. When parents are not present or become annoyed, ignore or ridicule their needs, infants infer an insecure attachment and organize behaviors that avoid parents in times of need or display extreme negative emotion to draw attention to the inconsistently responsive parent.
Attachment is powerful predictor of a child’s social and emotional growth. As the infant’s foundational experience with the world, the relationship with parents predicts later relationships and interactions. During this time of drastic synaptic remodeling, a poor attachment leaves a devastating mark on the infant’s sensitive brain. Studies have shown that Romanian orphans who were reared in extreme physical and social isolation have smaller brains and, as a result, are more likely to suffer mental health issues in peri-adolescence. Adopted orphans from Romania and China have a larger amygdala than their non-adopted counterparts, suggesting grossly and irreversibly altered emotion and fear processing networks.
Paid parental leave (for both parents) is associated with decreased infant mortality, less postpartum d
Having parents present is crucial during an infant’s first weeks of development—but institutions that train physicians don’t always seem to care
The Neuroscience of Paid Parental Leave
By Daniel Barron on October 30, 2017
Credit: Halfpoint Getty Images
As a new father, I’ve learned that the U.S. ranks at the very bottom of industrialized nations for paid parental leave. Denmark offers a year. Italy offers five months. France offers 16 weeks; Mexico, 12 weeks; Afghanistan, 13. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center analysis of 41 countries, the U.S. is the only one to offer zero paid parental leave.
It is easy (and likely accurate) to assume that paid parental leave policies are a nice gesture to help exhausted, stressed-out parents have the time and resources to figure out how to care for an infant. Perhaps this is why it is often bundled with leaves for tending to a sick family member. But the focus should more directly on the infants themselves, with parental leave being a necessary measure to insure infant health during a critical period of brain development.
THE NEUROSCIENCE OF PARENTAL LEAVE
What happens to the infant shortly after birth drastically alters his or her brain. Postnatal brain maturation is enormous in scope. Each day, tens of thousands of new synapses are formed. Genetic programs guide the birth of these synapses, but what signals the infant’s brain receives from the eyes, ears, skin and other senses sculpt how the brain’s functional anatomy is ultimately organized and implemented. Frequently used synapses form stronger, more efficient connections that coalesce into networks. Unused synapses die off. This is not an example of “use it or lose it,” but rather “use it or it never will be.”
The visual system, for example, simply cannot form in the absence of visual input. Ocular dominance columns, the neural centers in the visual cortex that process binocular vision, require visual stimulation from both eyes within a critical period, which is why infant cataracts are aggressively and quickly treated. Emotion and cognitive systems also do not form properly in the absence of specific inputs. Here, a parent’s caress, the melody of a mother’s voice, the smell of a father’s chest is incarnated, engineered into the cognitive foundation that the infant will use to make sense of the world. Brain development is why the parent-child relationship is so important—you can keep an infant warm and nourished without it, but their brain won’t develop properly.
Attachment describes what the infants’
brains infer about their parents and how children should behave to get what they need. When parents are consistently present and respond to distress promptly and with reassurance, infants
infer a secure and organized attachment. Behaviorally, infants learn that they can express negative emotions and this will bring about comfort from their parents. When parents are not present or become annoyed, ignore or ridicule their needs, infants infer an insecure attachment and organize behaviors that avoid parents in times of need or display extreme negative emotion to draw attention to the inconsistently responsive parent.
Attachment is powerful predictor of a child’s social and emotional growth. As the infant’s foundational experience with the world, the relationship with parents predicts later relationships and interactions. During this time of drastic synaptic remodeling, a poor attachment leaves a devastating mark on the infant’s sensitive brain. Studies have shown that Romanian orphans who were reared in extreme physical and social isolation have smaller brains and, as a result, are more likely to suffer mental health issues in peri-adolescence. Adopted orphans from Romania and China have a larger amygdala than their non-adopted counterparts, suggesting grossly and irreversibly altered emotion and fear processing networks.
Paid parental leave (for both parents) is associated with decreased infant mortality, less postpartum d
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