Donna Walls, RN, BSN, CLC, ANLC
Certified Aromatherapist
For many years I have taught how newborns initially crawl toward the smell of milk in their mother’s breast and how keeping a newborn close in those first days assures they can smell the milk, encouraging more frequent early feedings to build milk supply. As an aromatherapist, it made sense to me. The sense of smell is very important in our everyday lives, like warning us to danger when we smell smoke, protecting us when we smell spoiled food, when that wonderful whiff of rose or lavender immediately brings a sense of comfort or when the smell of a pie in the oven takes us back to a wonderful childhood memory. Our sense of smell is also involved in our human communications, forming bonds with others or even connecting to romantic partners.
Dr. Julie Mennella’s work, through the Monell Chemical Senses Center, clearly shows that the aromas of foods in the mother’s diet during pregnancy influences their food preferences later in their lives. This may be how infants become enculturated to the traditional foods of their culture. In a 2001 study she demonstrated that infants exposed to the flavor of carrots in their breastmilk more readily accepted carrot flavored cereals. Other studies have shown that breastfed infants who are exposed to the many flavors and aromas of foods through their mother’s milk tend to choose a more varied diet and are less “picky” in early childhood.
In animal studies it has been shown that this same mechanism can be protective as young animals will refuse to eat foods that are not familiar to them, foods they have not smelled through their mother’s milk, avoiding potentially dangerous foods in their environment.
I remember early in my career showing a short film in childbirth education classes of a newborn in an isolette with nursing pads draped on either side of his face. The voiceover states that every single time newborns begin root and attempt to nurse on it’s own mother’s nursing pad. WOW- that was powerful. So, is the sense of smell actually an essential component of attachment between mother and baby?
I watched a nature special once that explained how juvenile zebra can identify their own mother by their unique stripes while seals and penguins identify their mothers through their unique calls and vocalizations among hundreds of other seals and penguins. So, maybe in humans our attachment is based in aromatherapy!
If we recognize how important the sense of smell is to newborns, what can we do to facilitate optimum aroma communication between mother and baby?
Here’s some actions to support breastfeeding aromatherapy:
- Educate mothers and their families prenatally or early postpartum about the importance of the sense of smell to newborns.
- Educate healthcare providers and families about the role of immediate and continued skin to skin in facilitating the initial aroma connection.
- Encourage delayed bathing to avoid replacing natural amniotic smells with artificial smells of soaps. The WHO now recommends waiting 24 hours for the first bath.
- Avoid the use of “mittens” or hand covers to allow the newborn to introduce aromas on their hands to their mouths. Newborns also transfer smells from their mother’s breasts to their noses and mouths when hands are left uncovered.
- Minimize or completely avoid the use of lotions or creams when doing early skin care. Consider using the newborn’s own vernix as initial skin care as it has been shown to moisturize and provide antimicrobial protection.
- Avoid the practice of breast cleansing or application of creams, lotions or ointments which might block the smell to the infant.
I’m hoping that this blog might encourage you to add a new line in your job description- facilitating breastfeeding aromatherapy.
Mennella, J. et al. Prenatal and postnatal flavor learning by human infants. Pediatrics. June, 2001. PMID: 11389286.PMCID: PMC1351272.DOI: 10.1542/peds.107.6.e88.
Spahn, J. et al. Influence of maternal diet on flavor transfer to amniotic fluid and breast milk and children’s responses: a systematic review. March, 2019. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Volume 109, Supplement 1. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqy240Get rights and content