Scientists are still learning a lot about bonding. They know that the strong ties between parents and their children provide the baby's first model for intimate relationships and foster a sense of security and positive self-esteem. Parents' responsiveness to an infant's signals is important for the child's social and cognitive development. Bonding is important for a baby. Studies of newborn monkeys who were given mannequin mothers at birth showed that, despite the efforts of the baby monkeys to get a response through holding and touching the mannequins, the lack of a parental response caused stunted development, sadness, and failure to thrive in the young monkeys.
Scientists suspect that lack of bonding in human babies causes similar problems.
As the recently documented infant breast crawl demonstrates, most infants are ready to bond immediately. Parents, on the other hand, may have a mixture of feelings about it. Many parents feel an intense attachment within the first minutes or days after their baby's birth. Although basic survival instincts drive newborns to feed at their mother's breast, bonds between fathers and their babies are important, too. Sometimes a little extra encouragement from mom helps here.