It’s safe to say that separations that regularly create infant distress are problematic. Nothing prepares an infant for the isolation of a crib when she’s used to the sound of her mother’s heartbeat. Babies don’t understand that mom needs to go on a business trip or that she promised dad a date night. When a baby is separated from her mother for too long, unless there is a nurturing, familiar caregiver to take her place, the primitive brain registers a threat.
