What? Born with no central nervous system? NO! Babies have their very own central nervous system. The mother and the baby are separate beings, one dependent on the other, yes. But they are separate.
This neuroscientist really should not use hyperbole. If a baby was born without a central nervous system, that baby would be considered very ill and would die soon after birth.
What does that mean? “Every time a mother comforts a baby in distress, she’s actually regulating that baby’s emotions from the outside in. After three years, the baby internalizes that ability to regulate their emotions, but not until then.”
Not the most adroit way to make the point I grant you.
Perhaps a better way to say it is that a newborn’s nervous system is not fully developed and it is in need of a mother’s constant attention in order for that system to develop properly.
To anyone who has observed a newborn this should make perfect sense.
Read some stories about Russian orphanages and their treatment of orphaned newborns and the consequences to those children and this article and the book take on a new meaning.
The Russian orphanages is an extreme example but the concept is clear mothers are critical to the development of newborns and children as a whole.