title: Mother-infant interactions of medically fragile infants and non-chronically ill premature infants.
abstract: At 6 months corrected for prematurity, 41 medically fragile prematures, 20 medically fragile full-terms, and 28 prematures without chronic illnesses were observed interacting with their mothers for 1 hr. Mothers of non-chronically ill prematures gestured to and touched their infants less, were uninvolved with them for a longer time, and spent less time interacting and looking at their infants than did mothers of medically fragile infants. Medically fragile full-terms slept more than the non-chronically ill prematures. The non-chronically ill premature group played with objects more and exhibited more locomotion. Thus, the non-chronically ill prematures had more mature behaviors but less frequent interactions than did the medically fragile infants. These disparities reflect differences both in the infants' functional maturity and in maternal compensation for infant vulnerability.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460, USA.
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Holditch-Davis
authors.forename: Mary Foster
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Margaret Shandor
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Belyea
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018730:Infant Behavior; D007224:Infant Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007229:Infant Welfare; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations