 The Boards Birth Stories Info Alley Mom's Lounge Reading List Resources Your Leader |
A review of 17 controlled studies conducted between 1975 and 1985
compared newborn infants in the hospital who had routine contact with
their mothers with those receiving additional contact. In 13 studies
the additional contact occurred only during the first hour of life; 9
of these noted significant positive differences in the later behaviour
of the mothers toward their infants. In the four studies in which the
extra contact extended through the first three days of life, the
mother-child relationship was measurably better in quality for the
extra-contact infants than for the control infants at one month, one
year and two years of age. Increased contact at any time during the
first three days after birth (when the mother and baby spend this time
in the hospital) produces a long-term improvement in the quality of
the relationship between mother and child. Increased contact may in
part make up for the marked deprivation that is a part of current
routines in modern hospitals. There is some evidence that this, with
the additional deprivation of insufficient contact, can have serious
consequences for the child--both child abuse and failure to thrive
without organic cause are found more frequently in infants who have
been separated from their parents immediately after birth. A more
recent review of 29 random control trials between 1972 and 1985 of
restrictive versus unrestrictive mother-infant contact in the
immediate postpartum period found strong evidence that restricting
contact significantly reduced both subsequent maternal affectionate
behaviour and subsequent breastfeeding. Do fragile babies need incubators at all? One doctor working in an
African hospital, where there were none, found that the mother herself
made a perfect incubator--warm, soft, food on tap, the ever present
comfort of the familiar heartbeat. This doctor saved 90% of babies as
small as 4 pounds. Contrast this with the well-established research
findings that mothers of babies spending time in neonatal care units
find it more difficult to bond with their babies, suffer more
postnatal depression, are still talking to their babies less a year
later, and are more likely to batter those children.
Medicalised childbirth itself fills the intensive care cots by
creating damaged babies: for example, babies born with respiratory
distress syndrome caused by premature induction; ceasarean babies
denied the positive benefits of the stress of vaginal birth; babies
starved of oxygen--induced contractions; babies born floppy and full
of artificial drugs. Babies deprived of the stress of normal birth are
also deprived of B-endorphin needed to fall in love with their mother
and learn their new environment. The newborn can serve as a caregiver to its mother in a most essential
and critical way. The mother and infant share a common need for
generalized peristalsis during the first days following delivery, but
particularly during the first few hours. If the newborn is permitted
to nurse shortly after delivery, the flow of oxytocin is released,
which in turn stimulates the letdown process, a form of peristalsis.
Oxytocin is well know to stimulate uterine contractions, which are
necessary to minimize the danger of postpartum hemorrhage and
facilitate involution of the uterus. Sucking also promotes prolactin.
Thus the nursing activity of the newborn not only facilitates the
establishment of lactation but also serves to promote a state of
equilibrium and physiological heaing in the mother. Reprinted from Midwifery Today E-News (3:8 February 21, 2001) http://www.midwiferytoday.com
For all other matters contact Midwifery Today: |
