what is maternal instinct?

Question

mother and child

Answer 1

It's an innate knowledge of how to take care of a child without having prior experience or teaching. It also reflects an automatic bond between mother and child.

Answer 2

A would say a maternal instinct is when a mother's intuition tells her whats good and whats not for her baby/child,the best example i can give is when my maternal instinct 'kicked in'......
My little boy was 7 months old and vomiting after his bottle i phoned the GP who couldn't see me cos he was booked up, now i no just vomiting thats what babies do...but this was different and i just knew something wasnt right... 10 mins l8r he had what looked like a fit... i rushed him to the dr's surgery where they told me he had a head cold and was fine, not even an hour later he had what looked like severe bruising on his back, we rushed him to A+E where the dr there gave him an hour to live..... turned out my maternal instinct was right from the word go, my baby had meningitus B which is the killer. Luckily he's fine now and the hospital put an artical in the local paper saying he bordered on miraculus for his recovery...no thanks to the dr!!!! so to me thats maternal instinct and it works

hope this has helped sorry its abit long winded

Love Donna xx

Answer 3

I discovered this the night after I'd given birth to my son. I was fast asleep when I almost jumped out of bed in response to my babies cries to be fed! But when I looked over at him, he had bearly woken up himself, and was just squirming gently. I couldn't believe how strong the maternal instinct was.. normally I am a very heavy sleeper yet I was woken by a tiny murmur! I also noticed the maternal instinct when out in public places with my baby and he began crying. When you hear other peoples babies crying it does nothing to you, except maybe be a slight annoyance. However, when its your own, the cry pierces into your very soul! It makes you feel stressed and you cannot relax until the baby is satisfied! Oh yea, and another example, is a strong sense of protection comes over you, that you never had before. If anybody held my baby I was watching them closely in case the baby looked uncomfortable or anything. I felt like other people didn't hold him quite how he liked and stuff and I was worried he might get upset! In fact, I couldn't wait to get him back into my arms again!

Answer 4

It is a gut feeling you have as a mother to your child. Not every woman has a maternal instinct.

Answer 5

You know instinctively what is best for your child. People give you advice and you listen to it, but at the same time, you're thinking, 'No, that may have worked for her, but I'm going to try doing it this way.' and you just know that it'll work. I was one of the lucky ones, I had a very strong bond with my babies and as a result we have a strong family bond now. I will never stop being thankful for that fact.

Answer 6

my 6 yeah old wanted to go for a wee while i was waiting for my other children at their school, so i told her to run back in and go no sooner i had let her go i had this weird feeling inside i know sum thing was wrong and it was a woman had come into the school and tried to take a child waiting in the toilets which was my daughter now i don't know why i had that feeling call it maternal but i knew something was wrong. oh yeah i managed to get to my daughter before she took her out the gates

Answer 7

Its a survival instinct for the race in general.

If we didn't have it there are times our offspring would not survive.

As any mother who has raised kids.

Answer 8

it's a woman's innate desire to care for a child. the amount of maternal instinct varies from woman to woman.

Answer 9

the instinct a mother has to protect child also to stay at home and mind them while they are babies and to put them before herself

Answer 10

Knowing what to do without ever having been taught,
or motherhood instinct.