Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape and one of Britain's best-known zoologists, will publish his own baby care guide next week because, he said, too many help books for parents advocated 'unnatural' and 'brutal' childcare techniques.
'I'm very angry that baby books have recently begun repeating the unnatural dictates from so-called childcare "experts" of the past, who ordered mothers never to hug or kiss their babies and ignore them if they cry,' said Morris. 'I nearly died when I was just a few months old thanks to a baby book, so I feel very strongly about it. You could say that I have a personal axe to grind.'
Morris was born in 1928 when the theories of American baby expert John Watson were in vogue. Watson, who believed parents should break the spirit of their infants in the same way that trainers tame a horse, called for babies to be put outside in their prams, regardless of the weather, and ignored if they cried.
'Babies reared under Watson's severe regime often suffered and, as a baby, I belonged to that generation,' said Morris. 'Left crying in my pram in a harsh east wind, I developed double pneumonia and nearly died. After that, my mother decided to abandon the teachings of the day and trust to her maternal instincts.'
Morris is disturbed by the recent revival of interest in Watsonian theories, pointing to the methods prescribed by maternity nurse Claire Verity, who has cared for the babies of Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson and Sting, but whose appearance on the Channel 4 series Bringing Up Baby led to her receiving death threats, being spat at in the street, and being asked to stay away from the Baby Show at Earls Court, London.
Verity, however, is not the only childcare expert who has made her name advocating authoritarian parenting techniques. Controversial childcare guru Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby Book of Weaning is a highly prescriptive attempt to introduce routine into the lives of parents and children.
'There are lots of good baby books on the market, but an increasing number are by so-called experts who have realised that if they want to make a name for themselves they have to say something new,' said Morris. 'Why introduce cold discipline into a relationship that should be one of total loving?
'I have a vested interest in trying to prevent the rise of these brutal and terribly prescriptive books. I want to prevent what happened to me being done to another child.'
Morris's book, Baby, The Story of a Baby's First Two Years, details a baby's development from the moment of conception. By explaining the biology, physics, chemistry and other forces which drive the changes that occur in a baby's body, Morris hopes parents will be able to make their own decisions about how to treat their child.
'I believe that, if a parent knows what the facts are, they see it's pretty easy to decide for themselves how their baby should be treated,' said Morris.
Morris blames the resurgence of interest in prescriptive childcare books on the fragmentation of modern society. 'Many young women are looking for advice because they don't have the support of their extended family, their partner or other women who have already had children,' he said. 'I can see how these women turn to strongly worded advice books. I can also understand how it is a great relief if these books claim a baby doesn't need the level of care that an isolated mother finds difficult to provide.'
Morris says he hopes his book will provide mothers with the information to 'read' their baby's body language that, in the past, would have been passed down to them from their mothers or extended families.
'We all know what a smile or a scream means,' he said. 'But it's the more subtle messages mothers will miss if they don't learn it from others - the first sign that a baby is not well or that they are not developing as they should. My book explains these signs. I hope it will empower mothers.'
