You may have never stopped to think about it, but when we hold a baby in our arms, we tend to carry his body most of the time on the same side of our body and, according to a study, the side chosen is usually the left, regardless of whether we are right or left-handed.
In this choice, the cerebral hemispheres and the bond between mother and baby come into play.
question of emotions
According to the study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution carried out by Russian, American and Australian scientists in which they analyzed lateralization in mother-baby interactions in various mammalian species, they found that the reason there is a preference for the left side to carry the pups or babies is a matter of emotions. Emotions are found in the right hemisphere of the brain, it is the hemisphere related to the social part, with facial recognition and with the ability to process emotions and we project them on the left side, that is, we know that the motor functions of our left side are controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain and those of the right by the left hemisphere, that is why we tend to hold babies towards the left side, so that they are always in contact with our most emotional side. That is, holding the baby on the left side allows mothers to better interpret the baby's needs and strengthen their bond with him.
Mothers, according to this study, not only carry babies on their left side, they also cradle and rock them on it. This tendency towards the left side has not only been demonstrated in mothers: little girls, when playing with dolls, also tend to place them on that side. This trend also seems to be observed in men who have been fathers.
In the study, this tendency was analyzed in humans, but also in ten other species of marine and terrestrial mammals, and this preference was also observed: in the case of animals, when the offspring were too large to be carried by their mothers or were species in which they moved alone from the beginning, they seemed to be the ones who kept their mothers close to their left side.
These findings demonstrate that this is an evolutionary behavior to reinforce the mother-child bond. An instinctive and powerful connection.
A previous study, from 2004 and carried out by the psychology department at the University of Sussex, already maintained that between 70 and 85% of women carry their babies on their left hip. You might think that the reason is because there are more right-handed people than left-handed people and by holding the child on the left side we leave the right arm free to be able to function better, pick up things, perform tasks while we have the baby in our arms, etc... which is also true, but this percentage that we are commenting on also includes left-handed women, which is why studying the preference of holding the baby on that side was necessary. Since many women, being left-handed, also hold their babies with their left arm and carry them on their left hip, leaving the arm with which they do not develop naturally free.
Other causes
Other causes have also been pointed out that would explain this preference for carrying babies on the left side. Some theories suggest that it is on this side of the body that the heart is located and, instinctively, placing babies near it makes them feel protected again, listening to their heartbeats as when they were in the womb, which helps them calm down.
However, carrying the baby on the right side or alternating both sides is totally normal and is not a sign of anything that should be worrying. As we have seen, the study reflects majority percentages, but it is not 100%, so there are always exceptions, especially when it comes to exchanging both sides, since there is a very basic reason for doing so: the baby is heavy and we get tired.
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