Researchers found that smelling a newborn was akin to eating delicious food or taking drugs. Yes, really.
, Johannes Frasnelli, a co-author of the study, described the significance of his research. “As anyone with a baby knows, newborns are not too much fun to be around,” Frasnelli said. “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.”
Frasnelli surmises that the reason newborn scents seem to be linked so strongly with the “reward centers” of our brain is so that humans have a built-in imperative to become bonded to their babies. “[T]here must be mechanisms which allow for a very strong bond between parents, especially mothers, and the baby,” Frasnelli said. “We think that the odor of babies is involved in one of these mechanisms.”. I mean, caring for a newborn isn’t always pleasant.
Interestingly, although moms reacted more strongly to the inhalation of newborn scents in Frasnelli’s study, non-moms also had their dopamine pathways triggered. As the researchers note, this may point to a push in biological evolution for all folks – not just biological parents – to be drawn toward protecting and bonding with newborns.
And I can personally attest to the fact that before I become a mom, I was already totally enthralled with that newborn baby scent. I mean, it’s definitely part of the reason I got myself into the whole parenting thing in the first place. So maybe there’s an evolutionary imperative behind non-moms getting their dopamine fix when they hold other people’s babies … you know, so we can feel a pull toward making more delicious-smelling human babies.
Still, there will come a day when reproducing won’t even be an option for me, and at that point I’m going to need scientists to come up with a way to bottle the newborn baby smell. Or, you know, my kids better hurry up and give me some grandkids. Because a mama needs her fix.
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