Parents....that's two (2) people!

I agree . I also believe that Wanting a baby is learned and isn't instinct. Or there are people who are born without this parent instinct. I have Never wanted a child . I have no maternal instincts whatsoever.And if you do have the desire to have kids you Do need to learn how to properly take care of them. And when you learn you still need support, even if there are two parents.

I'm not sure i agree wholeheartedly maybe partially. How did woman in cave man time take care of their young? There are woman who have no one around and they manage to take care of their children. They do have to learn how to feed their babies but I think they learn with trial and error. Human beings are smart and can figure things out for themselves. A mom knows that she needs food and clothes and shelter so she also knows her child does as well. In a way its part of instinct to know what to do. but it is easier to learn from someone more knowledgeable.

Yes I sure do agree with ya

In the animal kingdom it is born into the animal as a natural instint i agree..As for women the body does chand=ge as far as the milk coming down etc but i agree we need to learn how to care for our babies...Some things come natural and others do not...I do think the mothering instint kicks in ,however women has to learn it does not always come natural as it does in animals....

Normally, the parent's love for their offspring comes naturally, but no matter what you think you know, the rest is a matter of trial and error. I honestly don't know how some can just create a child then turn their back on them, as sometimes happens. My kids irritated me sometimes, but I'm sure we had the same effect on our parents. The secret is to never give up.

I think that there is some instinct that takes over but you are right we do need to learn how to take care of our young. I know that sometimes women have babies and go right on doing whatever they were doing before they went into labor but I think in those4 cases the woman has a lot of knowledge before labor to be able to do that. I get a big kick out of my daughter who has an 15 month old and I tell her how things were done 20 years ago. Funny thing all the rules have changed!!!!One year babies need to sleep on their backs the next they need to be propped on their sides. How can a grandmother keep up???

I don't think it is instinctive in humans. You have to learn parenting. If you have good parents you learn a lot from them but you also have to learn from the mistakes you make. I've always said that I would never say I was a perfect parent, I just made different mistakes with each child. If no-one teaches us how to be parents then I don't think we would be able to do it naturally. Human babies are so much more complex than animal babies and need more than just food and shelter.

No I don't entirely agree with you because I believe humans still have instincts we just don't use them, we ignore them or deny them and they are sleeping in our subconcious. the first man and woman on earth had to figure out for themselves how to raise children.

I definitely do agree with you. Perhaps a hundred years ago we could have survived childbirth but even then I think they had a midwife available if there were complications. I think over the years it has been bred out of us with all the modern medical help we have become used to.

I think they've pretty well proved that the only instict humans have is a fear of falling, that starts about the stage where children develop binocular vision and ends when they figure out that the hole is covered with a clear protector - but it can still cause conserable fear in a child. Other than that, humans are up the creek on the instinct ladder - good thing we can teach other humans how to do things.

Wow, I hate to say it but I disagree with you. When I became a mother for the first time I was terrified when I was pregnant. I am an adopted child and was the first of my fiends to become pregnant. I had no one ot give me advise, no one to support me. I began to read Dr. Sears baby books and realized that being a mom was just based on your love for your child and plain old common sense. I also came to quickly realize that in the first month's of a childs life, the father is only there for moral support and to do the dishes, they really serve no other purpose...Sorry GUYS!!! Now I do believe that we have been trained to NOT TRUST our own instincts, therefore we are made to feel as though we don't have any. Our insticts are those little "voices" in your head that tell you right from wrong. If we follow those, we can always stay on the right track!!

Sadly, over the years, us humans have lost the ability to rely on instinct. We are conscious thought driven so don't listen to what instinct is telling us. Fortunately for me, I've always listened to my instincts and found that when I do, everything works out better. Even child birth and caring for my babies, though it can be rather tough at times.

I could not agree less with you. When I had my first daughter I knew exactly what position I needed to be in and everything else. The nurse kept insisting for me to lay flat on my back as I was screaming to turn on my side. Come to find out the baby was coming face up and the one thing that would have helped turn her was me flipping on my side. I have never seen a more natural instinct than the birthing process. Medical staff have made birth a medical procedure instead of a natural process so women now believe they need medical attention. In fact, most of the c-sections given are not necessary but are given for the simple fact that the doctor does not want to take any sort of risk of being sued. This is particularly high in the U.S. Most other countries look at the birth of a child as a beautiful natural process but the united states looks at it more like a medical procedure. If we had no instincts how did so many women give birth before all these fancy medical facilities popped up. My exes grandmother gave birth to 10 kids at home with no medical professional. All healthy babies one was over 10lbs.

well if you think about it the question is do humans have the instincet? since adam and eve a child was born and by instinct they had the chlid and raised the child to adulthood and then another child was born and so on and so forth. Hmmmmm so when was the doctor born? ever heard of midwifes. My oldest brother was born at home by my Mom and Dad and her mother only. No doctors or nurses just regular people having a child. the natural birth process came to be and a child was born. So do you think we dont have the instinct to survive? Put the human to the test and we have survived so many things giving birth was the beginning.

Well, yes and no! With my first child it was always instinct and I knew what to do. And I did it right. Of course, I needed to be shown how to bathe and some basic stuff...but I picked it up real quick....like I was always meant to be doing it. But having talked to my friends...I know that's not always the case....most of my friends didn't have the instinct. I was laid back with my second one...but he's very different from the first. And I had to re-learn most of it (maybe because of the age gap of more than 6 years...I forgot quite a few things till I got down to doing it). I feel it's different for different people...some people have the instict and some have to learn it. I'm not sure I can generalize either way...don't know which group is more.

I agree with you. Yes the act of birth is fairly instinctive but the raising of the child is not. Now some may have more instincts on it then others but many have no clue. Most mothers and fathers with their first baby are lost without someone to assist them or to share information. In the past most mothers and fathers had an older generation to give them guidance, that isn't always the case now a days and often we look to medical staff or other sources of information to guide us. It's one reason why so many copies of Dr. Spock's book is sold. We don't have the inborn knowledge needed and we do have to learn. Now some of us might have learned as a child when we played with dolls and later when we babysat but that still is very limited knowledge.

Honey I disagree. If something happened and someone had to instinct would kick in... We close our minds to what our body tells us! It's still there! xoxoxoxoxoxo

Unfortunetly no it doesn't happen for humans. That's why so many of the women need their mothers or the like to help them when they first get home because they don't know what to do. The second time around is much easier for then both parents have some experience and have an idea of what to do.

Yes I do sort of agree with you. When I had my first child back in the 60's we both loved her but were a bit afraid of picking her up and actually hurting her she was so small. With the second one it was different and we did not feel like this at all. I did not feel any natural instincts on how to care for her but I read lots of books and hopefully did not do a bad job with either of them

Dear MsTickle, I think you mean is that we are taught by the elders what we have to do and what not. We are always told what to do by the elders at home. They have been helping us with all the things we are supposed to do not only in looking after the children even how to etc. Because we get advised for each and everything our natural instinct goes haywire. We are not able to think naturally. But for animals there are no elders to advise them each and everything. So they have to relay on their instincts to look after the kids. there are stories in Hindu mythology of children born in the wilderness, without th help of others. They delivered the babies like in the olden days, in crude way, cleaned themselves up and just walked off with their babies. Am I right? We have lost our natural instinct our looking after things without the help from others.