The first 60 minutes of a baby’s life outside the womb is a crucial period of adjustment. Why? Because mothers who bond with their newborn babies during this critical time dramatically improve the growth and development of their children.a

What prompts a mother to care tenderly for her newborn baby? Professor Jeannette Crenshaw explains in The Journal of Perinatal Education that an elevated level of the hormone oxytocin “stimulates mothering feelings after birth as a mother touches, gazes at, and breastfeeds her newborn.” Another hormone released at this time “helps a mother respond to her baby” and reinforces her interaction with her baby. Why is that significant?

The close bond between mother and baby was designed by our loving Creator, Jehovah God.b King David credited God with bringing him “out of the womb” and making him feel secure in his mother’s embrace. He prayed: “I have been entrusted to your care from birth; from my mother’s womb, you have been my God.”​—Psalm 22:9, 10.

CONSIDER: If God created such a complex system to ensure that a human mother will tenderly observe her baby and respond to the infant’s needs, does it not seem logical that God also takes a personal interest in us, “the children of God”?​—Acts 17:29.