LONG‐TERM EFFECT ON MOTHER‐INFANT BEHAVIOUR OF EXTRA CONTACT DURING THE FIRST HOUR POST PARTUM II. A Follow‐up at Three months

Abstract

Primiparous mothers and their infants who had an extra 15-20 minutes' suckling and skin to skin contact during the first hour after delivery, behaved differently at 36 hours post partum compared with a control group without this extra contact. The present study is a 3-month follow-up of these mothers and infants by means of direct observation of mother-infant free play and a personal interview with the mothers. Mothers in the extra contact group spent more time kissing and looking en face at their infants; these infants smiled more often and cried less frequently. A greater proportion of the mothers with extra contact were still breast feeding at 3 months. The influence of extra contact on behaviour was more pronounced in boy-mother than in girl-mother pairs.

Mother‐to‐infant ‘Bonding’

“…Hales and his co-researchers (Hales et al, 1977) reported that mothers given skin-to-skin contact with their infants immediately after delivery displayed significantly more affectionate behaviours at 36 hours than did control mothers. These findings were not confirmed by De Chateau and Wiberg (1977). Twenty-two primiparous mothers given extra skin-to-skin and suckling contact with their infants after delivery differed at 36 hours from a control group of primiparous and multiparous mothers receiving routine care, on only four out of 35 measured variables.…”

Kissing in Marital and Cohabiting Relationships: Effects on Blood Lipids, Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction

“…For instance, De Chateau and Wiberg (1977) reported that when mothers spent more time kissing their infants at suckling, the infants smiled more and cried less frequently. Affection exchange theory (AET: Floyd, 2002Floyd, , 2006a provides that communicating affection in close relationships initiates neuroendocrine processes that maximize reward and buffer the individual against the physiological effects of stress, and that these benefits are independent of those associated with receiving affectionate expressions.…”

Kissing selectively decreases allergen-specific IgE production in atopic patients

“…In contrast, I have reported that relaxation by laughter or listening to Mozart reduces allergic responses and decreases allergen-specific IgE production [3][4][5]. It has been reported that mothers' kissing causes relaxation in healthy infants [6]. Moreover, I have previously reported that kissing by lovers or spouses to atopic patients reduces allergic responses and skews cytokine pattern toward Th1 type [7].…”