Citation

de Chateau P. Child Abuse Negl. 1979; 3(1): 279-283.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

During the last decades maternal and infant morbidity and mortality have been reduced to a very low level. Hospital personal has been focused upon providing a high quality of physical care, both for the mother and her infant, but little active interest has been directed towards the importance of the neonatal period for the development of the unique mother-father-infant relationship. Many routines in our neonatal and maternity wards, such as separation, restricted visiting hours for fathers and siblings etc., were introduced to prevent infections and to improve treatment of the newborn, and while the adverse influences on parent-infant relationship were recognized, many parents today are still not allowed to touch, hold and care for their newborn premature or sick infants. If the period immediately following delivery is a particularly sensitive or critical one many changes in our day-to-day care and hospital practices have to be made to ensure that mother and infant remain together during that period. To counteract the possible negative influences of hospital routines on the developing family relation we designed a study of enrichement of the immediate post-partum period.