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Interaction between mothers and infants born at risk during the first six months of corrected age

1997; Wiley; Volume: 86; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1651-2227.1997.tb08613.x

1651-2227

L Schermann‐Eizirik, Berit Hageküll, Gunilla Bohlin, Kristina Persson, Gunnar Sedin,

Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Abstract The effects of preterm birth and the perinatal infant health condition on mother‐infant interactions were analysed in 278 mother‐infant pairs, divided into four groups according to infants' gestational age at birth: group 1. 23–31 weeks; group 2,32–36 weeks; group 3, 37–42 weeks; and group 4, a control group of healthy full‐term infants. The methodological approach was based on observation of the pairs at 2,4 and 6 months of infants“ corrected age (± 1 week) during undressing of the infant and face‐to‐face interaction. It was found that mother‐infant pairs with preterm infants (groups 1 and 2) did not differ in interactional variables from those of the control group. On the other hand, the birth of a full‐term infant in need of neonatal intensive care (group 3) affected maternal and infant interactive behaviour. Additionally, infants from group 3 did not show stability in their interactive behaviour between any ages of measurement. This result suggests that interactive behaviour of full‐term infants in need of neonatal intensive care are rather unpredictable during their first 6 months of life, which might have contributed to the less optimal interactive pattern observed for their mothers compared with mothers of the control group.