80 days to go: The newborn observation countdown

We are counting down the days until the launch of a new Montessori International Course in Rome that is about the youngest children, from the fertilized egg to the second year of life: the Primal Period as Michel Odent calls it. 

I have been working in a hospital for the last two years as a Montessori trainer for the staff of public health midwives and have been able to observe newborns there. It is precious to be in contact with new life.

Recently we added a corner to the room where pregnant moms and dads come for the prenatal courses. I moved my movement mat to Italy with me, believe it or not.... the movement mat that I sewed together myself by gutting my organic futon and using some of the cotton batting to make a thinner mat, covering it with organic duck cotton, a smooth canvas like cotton weave.

We hung a kicking ball over head by an elastic, constructed some mobiles and last week began inviting two moms at a time to come in for observations. The goal is to develop observation skills and the only way to do this is to put in time observing. We decided to invite a mom and baby to the prenatal class last week and 8 pregnant women spent an hour in silence, watching and listening to the comments I offered every once in a while.

Today we had two 2-month old girls. Both of them were fascinated by the mobiles above their heads and we watched them watch the mobiles turn slowly in the air currents. After 15 minutes sitting beside her little one, interacting with her and tapping the mobile every once in a while to make it spin, I invited her to sit in the "relaxation chairs" that make up the seats in this prenatal environment, and watch from there. Her little girl spent another 15 minutes studying the mobile and we talked about how they learn to focus through direct experience, and how movement is complex to understand and how interesting it is to them to watch things that they are trying to figure out. Mom was surprised by how concentrated her baby was and it was obvious that she was studying this set of moving objects above her.

This seemed like an important moment for these moms, who for two months have been immersed in being with and caring for their babies, to realize that "she's all grown up" "she doesn't need me anymore" for 15 or 20 minutes at a time, a new sense of freedom.