Archival ReportMaternal-Preterm Skin-to-Skin Contact Enhances Child Physiologic Organization and Cognitive Control Across the First 10 Years of Life
Section snippets
Participants
Participants included 146 mothers and their premature infants: birth weight: mean = 1270 g (SD = 343.49, range 530–1720 g), gestational age: mean = 30.65 weeks (SD = 2.76, range 25–34 weeks). Of these, 73 infants received skin-to-skin contact (KC), and 73 matched controls received standard incubator care. Mother–infant pairs in the contact and control groups were case-matched for demographic and medical conditions, including gender, birth weight, gestational age, medical risk quantified by the
Physiological Processes
MANOVA computed for the two neonatal physiologic measures revealed an overall main effect for group, Wilks’s F2,112 = 4.992, p = .008, Eta2 = .082. Neonates receiving KC showed higher baseline RSA and more organized sleep-wake cycle at term age. Overall main effect was found for medical risk, Wilks’s F2,112 = 4.891, p = .009, with sicker neonates showing less organized sleep and autonomic functioning. MANOVA computed for the three physiologic measures at 10 years: baseline RSA, baseline
Discussion
Touch is the most basic mammalian maternal behavior and the first social experience mammalian young partake immediately after birth (11). Maternal–infant contact is also deeply rooted in human cultural heritage; throughout human history and across cultural communities, images of maternal–infant contact serve as the primary symbol of the human capacity to love 11, 52. Such evolutionarily conserved behavior must bear important consequences for survival, growth, and adaptation 2, 52. In this
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