When any of my friends have
babies, they know I will be front
and centre busting to visit them
in the hospital.
Sure, I want to see the new tiny
human they created and make
cooing noises and them, and
listen to their
super long, involved birth story,
complete with all the blood and
guts details that everyone
forgets after the
rst month or so. But more than
that, I want to sniff their baby's
head.
The scent only lasts a few weeks,
and then it's replaced by general
baby smell, which is less
pleasing because
it encompasses poo and milky
vomit.
Nobody actually knows what causes the unique smell in newborns, but the most popular theory is that it has something to do with vernix caseosa,
the white substance babies are covered in while their still in utero, and sometimes when they're rst born.
But we do now know the reason it's there: evolution.
Anatomy professor Johannes Frasnelli told New York Magazine that the newborn scent is designed to stop us leaving our baby under a tree and
nicking off to the beach in those challenging rst weeks.
"As anyone with a baby knows, newborns are not too much fun to be around. They sleep, eat, and make you change the diapers. Still, most if not all
parents say that having a baby is one of the greatest experiences," said Johannes.
"So, of course, there must be mechanisms which allow for a very strong bond between parents, especially mothers, and the baby. We think that the
odour of babies is involved in one of those mechanisms."
Johannes co-authored a study in 2013 in Frontier Psychology that monitored the brain activity of 30 women when they were exposed to a series of
odours. Fifteen had recently given birth, and 15 had never given birth.
When they were exposed to the scent of a two-day-old child's pyjamas, the neural activity increased in the same reward-related areas of the brain
that activate when enjoying food, or consuming cocaine.
So a baby is kind of like a class A drug habit. But more expensive, and with less sleep.
What's interesting to note is that although the response was stronger in the new mums, there was a positive reaction in all of the women.
Men's response to that newborn baby smell is not yet understood.
Of course, it's not just their alluring scent that convinces us we should look after babies. They are also designed to be ridiculously cute, with large
eyes, chubby cheeks and those cooing sounds they're so good at.
“Infants attract us through all of our senses," said Morten Kringelbach in an Oxford University paper, "which helps make cuteness one of the most
basic and powerful forces shaping our behaviour."
Glamaour Era