Having faith in children’s innate sociality, the elders were never tempted to withhold their love and respect as leverage to enforce good behavior. Unconditional love - Children felt welcome and worthy in the eyes of their parents and caregivers.Also, parents expected their children’s self-preservation instincts to keep them safe, which allowed the children to develop appropriate levels of caution and high levels of confidence, without the interference of parental anxiety and overprotection. Great expectations - Children sensed (and fulfilled) their elders’ positive expectations, which were based on the belief that children are innately social and cooperative.Responsive care - Babies developed high levels of emotional intelligence as their caregivers were present, attuned, and responsive to their signals (squirming, crying, etc.) - responding immediately without judgment, displeasure, or invalidation of the babies’ needs, yet showing no undue concern nor making them the constant center of attention.The in-arms phase ends when babies begin creeping and crawling, though they benefit from being carried (less frequently) even after they learn to walk. This allowed them to absorb the sights, sounds, and movements of the culture into which they were growing. In-arms phase - During the first six months or so, babies were constantly carried in arms or otherwise in physical contact with caregivers (most often their mothers, but also other family and community members, including older children) while the people carrying them went about their normal activities.Cosleeping - Babies shared their parents’ bed or otherwise maintained direct contact or close proximity to their primary caregivers at night, usually for at least two years before shifting to another configuration (but never to complete isolation).Breastfeeding - Babies nursed frequently, prompted by their own internal signals, especially during the first year or two, with less frequent nursing often continuing well beyond two years.Natural birth - A birth experience that unfolded according to nature’s exquisitely evolved process, supported by a culture of trust in the inherent wisdom of the birthing mother’s body.
For countless millennia, the following experiences were virtually universal for “primitive” babies and children: According to Jean Liedloff, the continuum concept is the idea that in order to achieve optimal physical, mental and emotional development, human beings - especially babies - require the kind of experience to which our species adapted during the long process of our evolution.
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