title: Separation at birth and the mother-child relationship.
abstract: Mother-child relationships were investigated between: (a) 32 mothers and their singleton children with birthweights of 2000g or less who had been separated immediately after birth for a minimum period of 17 days (index families), and (b) 32 control mothers and their singleton children, matched with index cases for type of residence, sex and month of birth, but who had not been separated at birth and whose birthweights were 2700g or greater. From interview, validated by questionnaire and semantic differential scoring, six of the index mothers, but none of the control mothers were assessed as having rejected their children. Comparisons were made between rejected and non-rejected index children. Rejection occurred more commonly in the low-birthweight group if the mother had been a teenager at the birth of her first child or of the study child, especially if she had not planned or wanted the pregnancy. The mothers of rejected children tended to have had poor relations with their own fathers, were unhappy with their life-style, and perceived their children as having difficult or unlikeable personalities. The rejected children were more likely to have had poor health, severe temper tantrums, and to cause their mothers concern over their poor appetite.
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007086:Illegitimacy; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007236:Infant, Small for Gestational Age; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008423:Maternal Age; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011247:Pregnancy; D011275:Pregnancy, Unwanted; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D012659:Semantic Differential; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires