Women: Have you ever snuggled a baby in your arms and had an overwhelming urge to actually eat it? As soon as you catch a whiff of that sweet newborn skin you feel compelled to put your mouth on it? A team of researchers have found that this feeling is entirely normal. It’s part of the maternal instinct—and explains why we often find ourselves describing babies as “delicious” and “yummy” and saying things like, “You’re so cute! I could gobble you up!”
Scientists at the University of Montreal found that a newborn’s scent triggers the reward circuit in women’s brains, causing the release of dopamine and activating the same part of the brain that craves certain foods. The researchers found that women had the same feeling even when they were holding a baby who wasn’t their own.
“The olfactory—thus non-verbal and non-visual—chemical signals for communication between mother and child are intense,” explains Johannes Frasnelli, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Montreal’s Department of Psychology. “What we have shown for the first time is that the odor of newborns, which is part of these signals, activates the neurological reward circuit in mothers. These circuits may especially be activated when you eat while being very hungry, but also in a craving addict receiving his drug. It is in fact the sating of desire.”
(In case you were wondering: While women get this urge to eat babies, they don’t literally do it.)
For this small study, the researchers formed two groups of 15 non-smoking women: One group of women who’d recently given birth and another who’d never had children. Both groups were presented with newborn smells while undergoing brain imaging scans. All of the women received the odors with the same intensity but the scans showed that the mothers’ brains had a stronger reaction.
The researchers concluded: “These results show that the odor of newborns undoubtedly plays a role in the development of motivational and emotional responses between mother and child by eliciting maternal care functions such as breastfeeding and protection. The mother-child bond that is part of the feeling of maternal love is a product of evolution through natural selection in an environment where such a bond is essential for the newborn’s survival.”
