Trust or lack of trust and a relationship with a pediatrician or another influential person were pivotal for decision-making of new mothers about vaccinating their children. Attempts to work with mothers who are concerned about vaccinating their infants should focus not only on providing facts about vaccines but also on developing trusting and positive relationships.

These findings of reduced volumes in sensorimotor and parieto-occipital regions in preterm infants, and the prospective correlations of regional volumes with cognitive outcome, confirm and extend findings previously reported in a cross-sectional study of 8-year-old prematurely born children. The data suggest that regional brain volumes near term are a promising marker for predicting disturbances of cognitive outcome in preterm infants. Further prospective, longitudinal studies of neonatal brain volumes and developmental indices into later childhood are required to confirm the utility of regional brain volumes as predictors of longer term outcome.

Objective Determine trends and factors associated with bed-sharing. Design National Infant Sleep Position Study: Annual telephone surveys. Setting 48 contiguous United States. Participants Nighttime caregivers of infants born within the last 7 months between 1993 and 2010. Approximately 1000 interviews annually. Main Outcome Measure Infant usually bed-sharing. Results Of 18,986 participants, 11% reported usually bed-sharing. Bed-sharing increased between 1993 (6.0%) and 2010 (13.5%). While there was an increase for Whites from 1993 to 2000 (p<0.001), there was no significant increase from 2001 to 2010 (p=0.48). Blacks and Hispanics showed increase in bed-sharing throughout the period 1993 to 2010, with no difference between the two time periods (p=0.63 and 0.77, respectively). After accounting for study year, factors associated with increase in usually bed-sharing included: compared to college or more, maternal education less than high school (AOR = 1.4; 95% CI, 1.1–1.8), compared to White race, maternal race or ethnicity Black (AOR = 3.5; 95% CI, 3.0–4.1), Hispanic (AOR = 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1–1.6) and Other (AOR 2.5; 95% CI, 2.0–3.0), compared to household income ≥$50,000, less than $20 000 (AOR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.4–2.0) and $20–$50,000 (AOR=1.3; 95%CI 1.1–1.5), compared with living in the Midwest, living in the West (AOR=1.6; 95%CI 1.4–1.9) or South (AOR=1.5; 95% CI=1.3–1.7), compared with infant age ≥16 weeks, less than 8 weeks (AOR = 1.5; 95%CI 1.2–1.7 and 8–15 weeks (AOR-1.3; 95% CI=1.2–1.5) and being born prematurely (AOR = 1.4; 95% CI, 1.2–1.6). Thirty-six percent of the participants reported talking to a doctor about bed-sharing. Compared with those who did not talk to a doctor, those who reported their doctors had a negative attitude were less likely to bed-share (AOR 0.66 (95% 0.53, 0.82), whereas a neutral attitude was associated with increased bed-sharing. (AOR 1.4; 95%CI 1.1–1.8). Conclusion Our findings of the continual increase in bed-sharing throughout the period 1993–2010 among Black and Hispanic infants suggests that the current recommendation about bed-sharing is not universally followed.

The objective of this study was to detect auditory cortical activation in non-sedated neonates employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Using echo-planar functional brain imaging, subjects were presented with a frequency-modulated pure tone; the BOLD signal response was mapped in 5 mm-thick slices running parallel to the superior temporal gyrus. Twenty healthy neonates (13 term, 7 preterm) at term and 4 adult control subjects. Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in response to auditory stimulus was detected in all 4 adults and in 14 of the 20 neonates. FMRI studies of adult subjects demonstrated increased signal in the superior temporal regions during auditory stimulation. In contrast, signal decreases were detected during auditory stimulation in 9 of 14 newborns with BOLD response. fMRI can be used to detect brain activation with auditory stimulation in human infants.

The aim of the study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the reasons why pregnant women accept or reject the seasonal influenza vaccine. The qualitative descriptive design used a face-to-face semi-structured interview format. Sixty pregnant and postpartum women at two hospitals in the Northeastern United States participated. Content analysis was the inductive method used to code the data and identify emergent themes. Six themes emerged from the data: differing degrees of influence affect action to vaccinate; two-for-one benefit is a pivotal piece of knowledge that influences future vaccination; fear if I do (vaccinate), fear if I don't; women who verbalize 'no need' for the vaccine also fear the vaccine; a conveniently located venue for vaccination reduces barriers to uptake; H1N1-a benefit and barrier to the seasonal vaccine. Our study supports previous findings and reveals a deeper understanding and interpretation of the behavior and decision-making to accept or reject the influenza vaccine. Understanding the reasons behind the behavior of vaccine rejection gives us the chance to change it.

No abstract

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related infant deaths, such as accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed and ill-defined deaths, account for >4000 deaths annually in the USA. Evidence-based recommendations for reducing the risk of sleep-related deaths have been published, but some caregivers resist adoption of these recommendations. Multiple interventions to change infant sleep-related practices of parents and professionals have been implemented. In this review, we will discuss illustrative examples of safe infant sleep interventions and evidence of their effectiveness. Facilitators of and barriers to change, as well as the limitations of the data currently available for these interventions, will be considered.

We identified specific barriers to placing infants in the supine position for sleep (lack of or wrong advice, lack of trust in providers, knowledge and concerns about safety and comfort) in low-income, primarily black mothers that should be considered when designing interventions to get more infants onto their back for sleep.