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The Incredible Infant Brain

August 2020

“One of the things that set human beings apart from animals is that we are designed first and foremost for relationship…Therefore, relational ability must be fostered from the beginning.  The constant presence and touch of the mother as she carries, strokes, and comforts form a critical component that helps the baby to learn how to regulate his or her own emotions.  This ability is the cornerstone of thoughtful decisions and the ability to experience emotional intimacy later,” (1).

baby brain

Breastfeeding infants on cue, especially in the first three months after delivery (the fourth trimester) is vital not only to the nutritional health of the infant, the establishment of the maternal milk supply, and growth of the baby but also the neural development. “We know that a baby has virtually all his or her neurons in place by 18 weeks gestation, all 180 billion of them…[and] will need to develop a rich synaptic network over the next three-plus years… the number of synapses (connections) doubles between 18 and 28 weeks of pregnancy, again by birth at around 40 weeks of pregnancy, and yet again by the time the baby is 8 months old,” (1).

“A 4th Trimester perspective acknowledges that intensive caregiving is necessitated by infants’ biological needs and requires substantial adjustments and sustained investment by a primary caregiver, usually mothers. Infants are as dependent on their caregivers in the weeks and months after birth as they were leading up to delivery… and expect to be held and cared for,” (2)

Stress can cause a rewiring of brain synapses. “As little as ten minutes of crying alone causes baby’s blood oxygenation to decrease, blood pressure to rise, stress hormones to release, and even tiny brain bleeds to occur…[and with regularity] actually rewires the baby’s brain to become anxious, depressed, and/or to experience other unhealthy states,” (1).

Infants are born to seek relationship and attachment. Breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact help to provide healthy attachment and bonding. Feeding on cue (demand feeding) is vital to this relationship.

Kathy Parkes, MSN-Ed, RN, IBCLC, FILCA CHC

Professional Development Educator

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
https://www.step2education.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Step2Education/

References:

1. Williams, N. (2016). Designed for relationship. Retrieved 8/1/20 from http://www.ezzo.info/designed-for-relationship
2. Tully, K.P. and Ball, H.L. (2018). Understanding and enabling breastfeeding in the context of maternal-infant needs. in Breastfeeding: new anthropological approaches. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 199-211. Retrieved 8/1/20 from [PDF] dur.ac.uk

 

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This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, used, and shared when you visit or make a purchase from https://step2education.com (the "Site").

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you visit the Site, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site. We refer to this automatically-collected information as Device Information."

We collect Device Information using the following technologies:

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  • "Log files" track actions occurring on the Site, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
  • "Web beacons," "tags," and "pixels" are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Site.

Additionally when you make a purchase or attempt to make a purchase through the Site, we collect certain information from you, including your name, billing address, shipping address, payment information (including credit card numbers), email address, and phone number. We refer to this information as "Order Information."

  • Users who are undertaking a course as part of a group or organization have certain data tracked as part of the service we provide to Clients and Facilitators. This includes information showing if you have logged in and when, dates of completion and what and when particular study topics, resources and assessments were viewed and completed. We refer to this information as "Student Access Information"

When we talk about "Personal Information" in this Privacy Policy, we are talking about Device Information, Order Information and Student Access Information.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We use the Order Information that we collect generally to fulfill any orders placed through the Site (including processing your payment information, arranging for shipping, and providing you with invoices and/or order confirmations). Additionally, we use this Order Information to:

  • Communicate with you;
  • Screen our orders for potential risk or fraud; and
  • When in line with the preferences you have shared with us, provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services.

We use Student Access Information to provide accurate tracking to Users and Clients on completion and use of the courses, as well as for analysis on how to improve our services.

We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. For example, with your employer who needs to verify your completion or progress of your studies. We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site--you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Finally, we may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.

BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING

As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative's ("NAI") educational page at https://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.

You can opt out of targeted advertising by:

Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance's opt-out portal at: http://optout.aboutads.info.

DO NOT TRACK

Please note that we do not alter our Site's data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.

YOUR RIGHTS

If you are a European resident, you have the right to access personal information we hold about you and to ask that your personal information be corrected, updated, or deleted. If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us through the contact information below.

Additionally, if you are a European resident we note that we are processing your information in order to fulfill contracts we might have with you (for example if you make an order through the Site), or otherwise to pursue our legitimate business interests listed above. Additionally, please note that your information will be transferred outside of Europe, including to Canada and the United States.

DATA RETENTION

When you place an order through the Site, we will maintain your Order Information and Student Access Information for our records unless and until you ask us to delete this information. We are required to keep course completion records for at least 5 years in order to comply with certain accreditation requirements.

CHANGES

We may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.

CONTACT US

For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by e-mail at info@step2education.com or by mail using the details provided below:

5890 Monkland Avenue, #16, Montreal, QC, H4A 1G2, Canada

Last Updated: September 2018