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Showing top 100 of 7,201 Stories

  1. Abnormal serotonin receptor binding in SIDS in a high-risk population

    Article • PLOS One

    The study is about the analysis of serotonin receptor-related pathology in the brainstem of infants dying of the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in high risk, impoverished populations in the Cape Coloured in South Africa and the American Indians in the Northern Plains, US. SIDS is defined as the sudden and unexpected death of an apparently healthy infant in the first postnatal year, which remains unexplained after a complete autopsy and forensic investigation. Although SIDS is a leading cause of postneonatal infant death worldwide, the disorder is disproportionately represented in socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Risk factors for SIDS include maternal drinking and smoking during pregnancy, prematurity, and low socioeconomic variables. Emerging autopsy data in SIDS compared to controls provide tissue-based evidence that a major subset of SIDS is due to a defect in the brainstem serotonin system mediating cardiorespiratory integration and arousal during sleep. Serotonin is a major neurotransmitter that plays an essential role in brainstem-mediated protective responses to life-threatening challenges, e.g., decreased oxygen (hypoxia), in compromised sleep, such as the prone sleep position. The newly released PLOS One paper represents the prospective multidisciplinary and international study, called the Safe Passage Study (SPS), of serotonergic receptor binding in the brainstem of SIDS infants. In the SPS, approximately 12,000 fetus-infant dyads were prospectively followed from socioeconomically improvised populations at especially high risk for SIDS with adverse maternal, infant, and environmental risk factors, including maternal drinking and smoking. We report that serotonin receptor pathology is present in the brainstem in the SIDS infants that closely reproduces similar findings in US cohorts. In the SPS, SIDS was significantly associated with indices of stress and low socio-economic status (SES) compared to non-SIDS controls, e.g., overcrowding, poor housing, and no phone (proxy for poverty), especially in SIDS infants born prematurely.

  2. Mothers’ experiences attending an online infant massage class

    Article • BMC Nursing

    This study aimed to explore the experiences of mothers who had attended online infant massage classes. METHODS: This qualitative survey recruited 12 Indonesian mothers with infants aged < 12 months who joined the online infant massage class. An open-ended question form was used to collect data, which were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Six themes related to mothers' experiences attending online infant massage classes: favorite session, new knowledge and skills, benefits, barriers during infant massage class, factors related to infant massage practice, and mother's hope.

  3. Types of infants based on infant communicative behavior in face-to-face mother-infant interaction

    Article • Developmental Psychology

    We identify clusters (types) of infants who exhibit similar behavioral profiles during face-to-face communication with their mothers at 4-months old. The clusters are based on variation in the intercept and the auto-correlation function of infant gaze, facial affect, vocal affect, and head orientation—coded from videotape at a 1-s temporal resolution. We showed that these types were related to infant temperament and infant attachment. One of the most interesting things about the paper is that we identified new forms of infant affective dysregulation: sustained negative vocal affect, associated with degree of attachment disorganization; random vocal affect, associated with attachment resistance; and random facial affect and vocal affect, irrespective of positive/negative valence, associated with infant difficult temperament.

  4. Breastfeeding, mother-infant skin-to-skin contact, and the developing mother-infant relationship

    Article • Infant Mental Health Journal

    Breastfeeding provides the optimal nourishment for young infants, yet many mothers, who begin as breastfeeding mothers, terminate the practice in their infants’ early weeks. Mother-infant skin-to-skin contact may be a means to help mothers maintain their decision to breastfeed. In mother-infant skin-to-skin contact, the baby, dressed only in a diaper, is placed on the mother’s bare chest so the frontal body contact between mother and infant is skin-to-skin. Skin-to-skin contact has been shown to help newborn infants adjust to life outside the womb. It also may help mothers to continue to breastfeed their infants beyond the infants’ early weeks. Breastfeeding may also benefit the mother-infant relationship itself. To investigate these possibilities, we followed two groups of mother-infant pairs. One group was asked to provide daily skin-to-skin contact over the infants’ first month and the other group (control group) received no request for skin-to-skin contact, although both groups kept daily records of the amount of skin-to-skin contact they provided. The mother-infant pairs were visited when the babies were one week, one month, two months, and three months. On each visit, mothers were asked their method of feeding their babies and a feeding session was assessed for mother-infant engagement. At one week, the percentage of mothers breastfeeding their infants was similar for both the skin-to-skin contact and control groups. All the mothers in the skin-to-skin contact group who began the study as breastfeeding mothers continued to breastfeed their infants though their babies’ first three months, whereas the percentage of control group mothers who were breastfeeding their infants declined during this time. Mother-infant skin-to-skin contact was found to help mothers maintain the decision to breastfeed through the infants’ early months, which is a time period when many mothers terminate their initial choice to breastfeed. Mothers who breastfed their infants had more positive maternal interactions during feeding than non-breastfeeding mothers, suggesting that breastfeeding benefits the developing mother-infant relationship. Feeding is where the mother-infant relationship is first established. It is the familiar and intimate context in which mothers and infants learn to adjust and adapt to each other. Breastfeeding appears to enhance this process.

  5. A Progress of Herbal Finish Aloe Vera and Neem in Infant Tank Tops in Mother’s View Point

    Article • International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development

    Textiles are an integral part of everyone's life associated with him from cradle to grave. It is used to cover human body, thus encompassing and protecting it from dust, sunlight, wind and other foreign matter present in the external environment that may be harmful to him. Textiles in apparel have retained an important place in human life, starting now into developing of newer high technology and interdisciplinary products. Among technical textiles, medical textiles are a very promising sector which plays a vital role in health of mankind. It consists of textiles used in operative and post operative tasks in and around the patient and the medical practitioners. These products are produced either by weaving, knitting, braiding or other nonwoven techniques. Medical textiles are broadly classified as non implantable materials, implantable materials, extra corporeal devices, and hygiene products, protective and health care textiles. Health care and hygiene products include both disposable and non disposable products mainly used in hospitals such as surgical gowns, surgical masks and gloves, infant tank top, sanitary napkins, wipes and incontinence products. The use of such products helps to reduce the opportunity for contamination by biological toxins and infectious pathogens. Hygiene and health care textiles consists of absorbent disposable products, such as baby infant tank top, tampons, panty shields, etc. which are mostly single use items. Baby infant tank top are made up of cotton fibres A Progress of Herbal finish 50 Aloe Vera and 50 Neem in infant Tank Tops When baby passes urine onto the baby infant tank top it creates the favorable conditions for the growth of microbes which will result in the occurrence of rashes. Also the cellulosic materials used in baby infant tank top are easily degraded by microorganisms which in turn affects to the sensitive skin of babies. Bacterial growth is one of the biggest fallout of non hygienic atmosphere. Further microorganisms such as bacteria, mould and fungi also cause deterioration of textiles. Hence there has been greater interest in textiles and garments that offer enhanced comfort as well as protection to the wearer. Hence to prevent such rashes some kind of an antibacterial finishes is essential. Plants and plant product are traditionally used for healing of wounds, burn injuries, anti fungal, anti viral, anti bacterial and anti microbial activity against skin infections. Herbal plant extract for antimicrobial finishing in textiles because of the excellent antimicrobial and eco friendly properties exhibited by them. Since these natural antibacterial agents are less toxic, less irritant and biodegradable they can be used as an antibacterial finish for baby infant tank top. This Herbal finish 50 Aloe Vera and 50 Neem in infant Tank Tops is subjected to the Mothers Survey. Mrs. D. Anita Rachel | Ms. K. Banupriya | Dr. B. SenthilKumar "A Progress of Herbal Finish (Aloe Vera & Neem) in Infant Tank Tops in Mother's View Point" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-2 , February 2018, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd9486.pdf

  6. An analytical framework for baby milk products selection using decision making techniques

    Article • Applied Food Research

    Ensuring that infant formulas meet the nutritional and safety standards of the World Health Organization is of critical importance. This study introduces a novel multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) framework, enhanced with fuzzy logic, to evaluate Baby Milk Companies (BMCs). The framework integrates two advanced methods: the 2-Tuple Linguistic q-Rung Picture Fuzzy Stepwise Weighted Assessment Ratio Analysis (2TLq-RPF-SWARA) for determining the weights of nutritional criteria, and the Compromise Ranking of Alternatives from Distance to Ideal Solution (CRADIS) for ranking BMC products. Data from ten major BMCs were analyzed, with company names anonymized to ensure objectivity. Infant Milk Nutritional Contents (IMNCs) were assessed, focusing on key components such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Results showed that BMC 2 achieved the highest score due to its balanced profile of macronutrients, essential fatty acids, and a rich spectrum of vitamins, minerals, and functional additives, whereas BMC 5 ranked lowest, reflecting significant deficiencies in essential nutritional factors. A sensitivity analysis further demonstrated that variations in criteria weights had only a moderate effect on the rankings, underscoring the robustness of the framework. Overall, the proposed approach enhances accuracy, transparency, and flexibility in evaluating infant nutrition products, providing a valuable tool to support evidence-based decision-making in the infant nutrition industry.

  7. Effect of biotic supplementation on infant sleep and settling behaviours: A systematic review and meta-analysis

    Article • Beneficial Microbes

    Gut microbiota, which changes significantly during infancy, can be influenced by biotic supplementation like probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics, which can modify sleep behaviors. Given the potential influence of the microbiome on infant sleep, this study aimed to determine the effect of biotic supplementation on sleep behaviours in healthy, full-term infants aged 0-12 months. We searched different databases and independently screened the articles. Data on infant sleep and settling behaviour outcomes, reported adverse effects, and co-morbid conditions were extracted for analysis. Meta-analyses were conducted using RevMan5. Our search yielded 453 studies and 23 randomized control trials included in this review. Probiotic supplementation was provided in 53% of studies, while 28% and 19% offered prebiotic and synbiotic supplementation, respectively. Sleep duration was the most common (95%) reported outcome for probiotics. No significant difference was reported in sleep duration during the 1st-4th week of probiotic supplementation. However, in the 5th week of probiotic supplementation, infants who received placebo slept significantly longer. The study suggests probiotic supplementation does not increase infant sleep duration but may contribute to longer sleep durations over the first 12 months of life. Future research should assess the full range of sleep behaviors, infant feeding type, microbiome analysis, adverse events, longer-term follow-up, and associated immune markers.

  8. How specialized care lowers infant mortality in modest hospitals

    Article • BMJ Open

    Even though there have been some improvements in the care offered for newborn babies, infant death rates in lower-income countries, like Uganda, remain high. To reduce the number of deaths, hospitals need to provide both basic and advanced care. However, only a few local hospitals in Uganda can afford to do so because it costs a lot of money. So, the authors of this study assessed two levels of affordable infant care in Nsambya Hospital, Uganda, over two phases: from 2007 to 2014 (phase I) and from 2015 to 2020 (phase II). They monitored the changes occurring over time and evaluated how these changes affected the causes of infant mortality. They studied how different care measures affected overall and illness specific causes of infant deaths.

  9. Maternal antibodies and infant dengue disease

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Dengue antibodies, passed from mother to infant during pregnancy can protect infants from infection and disease. However, as these antibodies wane we show how dengue antibodies within a specific window of concentration can increase the risk of severe dengue disease if an infant gets infected. We demonstrate that this risk mechanism is consistent with the age patterns of reported infant dengue hospitalizations in Thailand. In addition, we estimate large declines in the risk of infant dengue disease in Thailand over the past 40 years.

  10. Infant colic and abdominal pain - prevalence and early risk factors

    Article • Journal of Clinical Nursing

    Pain symptoms like infant colic and abdominal pain are common, distressing concerns for parents and clinicians. It may be difficult for parents to distinguish between infant colic and other pain symptoms. We have shown that infant pain symptoms overlap. Further, some risk factors for infant pain, like maternal sick leave and maternal allergies, were identified in pregnancy.

  11. Happier babies are more likely to go to college and have higher IQs

    Article • Emotion

    Parents want their children to be happy and successful but they often think happiness will follow success. I found that infant happiness predicted adult success at age 29. Specifically, happier infants are more likely to go further in their education. Part of the reason why is that infant happiness also predicted increases in IQ from infancy to childhood. Finally, infant happiness was not associated with the families socioeconomic status or infant intelligence.

  12. A phased process to reintroduce a hand-reared infant Tonkean macaque to her natal group

    Article • Folia Primatologica

    After giving birth, a female in a captive group of seven Tonkean macaques did not take care of her newborn. We removed the infant and hand-reared her with the aim of reintroducing her to the group after weaning. However, adding an immature individual to a multimale-multifemale group is risky, as the newcomer may no longer be recognised as a member of the group and therefore be attacked. The infant was brought to the front of the group enclosure daily for a period of two months, allowing them to see, hear, smell and even touch each other through the enclosure fence. We then started a phased reintroduction process that lasted a year. Because the mother was the individual most attracted to the infant, the process began by allowing the two individuals to freely interact in a special enclosure. In the next stages, we introduced the infant to the other group members one after the other in a special enclosure, starting with the females. The females were able to act as protectors against potential aggression from the males. Two years later, the introduced individual was fully integrated within her group and appeared to behave like the other group members. This report shows that it is possible to reintroduce an infant to a macaque group containing several adult females and males. The long and phased process contributed to the success of the reintroduction, in particular by allowing the infant to successively establish social relationships with each of the group members.

  13. Parents support prolonged infant visual attention to an object through engaged eyes, hands and talk

    Article • Developmental Psychology

    Children develop in a social context; Parents support the process through which young infants develop mature behaviors. In this article we show that parent's engagement with the object that the child visually attends to during play can support the maintenance and focus of infant visual attention towards that same object. Infant attention to an object was longer when the parent looked at the object attended to by the infant at the same time. Infant attention was also longer when parents touched the object and talked. This article suggests that multimodal parental engagement through eyes, hands and talk is the ideal type of support for infant sustained attention that parents should provide while infants play.

  14. Parental reactions to a dying marmoset infant: conditional investment by the mother, but not the father

    Article • Behaviour

    This article provides a rare anecdotal report of the parental reactions towards a dying common marmoset infant. We analyzed the interactions with the infant of both parents in the two hours before its death and found that the father interacted far more with the dying infant (i.e. trying to carry the infant, grooming and licking it, making eye contact). The results suggest that the mother stopped earlier to invest in the dying infant than the father (conditional maternal investment). Most likely, mothers are more selective than fathers because they bear excessive reproductive costs. This conditional maternal investment might be a strong selection pressure on infants of cooperatively breeding primates to advertise their viability, in particular to their mothers.

  15. Ruptures and repairs in mother-infant positive affect synchrony

    Article • Journal of Family Psychology

    The coordination of mothers' and their infants' positive affect (known as mother-infant positive affect synchrony) is thought to support infants' emerging social and emotional competencies. However, it is not possible for mothers and their infants to be synchronized all the time; one of the key tasks of parenting early on is repairing ruptures in positive affect synchrony. We sought to examine changes in mother-infant affect synchrony following an experimentally-induced rupture in synchrony, and whether these changes in synchrony facilitated infant emotion regulation.

  16. infant research and psychoanalysis

    Article • Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

    Psychoanalysis and infant research have strengthened cooperation in the current interdisciplinary dialog. Today, infant research is an indispensable part of psychoanalysis. In this article, we try to conclude the theoretical significance and practical significance of infant research for psychoanalysis.

  17. History of infant feeding in Postwar Korea

    Article • Gender & History

    Infant formula advertisements became common in newspapers and magazines in South Korea from the late 1950s, as advertisers of American and Japanese brands vied for mothers' attention to increase sales and influence over infant feeding choices. Over time, naked Korean baby boys were featured as a symbol health, vitality, and superiority of bottle feeding over breastfeeding. Babies were both gendered and racialized in the consumer market for infant formulas.

  18. Anthropology of infant sleep research past and future

    Article • American Anthropologist

    In this paper three anthropologists who have spent their careers researching infant sleep from evolutionary and socio-cultural perspectives summarise the state of their field. They explore how anthropology addresses questions about infant sleep in different ways from the traditional approach, and highlight examples of how their research has changed policy and practice. The next phase, they argue, is to integrate the evolutionary and socio-cultural anthropological perspectives to challenge the dominant infant sleep paradigm.

  19. Prelacteal and early formula feeding increase risk of infant hospitalisation: a prospective cohort study

    Article • Archives of Disease in Childhood

    This is the first study in Vietnam to examine prelacteal feeding and early formula feeding in relation to infant hospitalisation, diarrhoea, and lower respiratory tract infection during the first year of life, using a multicenter prospective cohort study design. We found that the rates of these adverse health outcomes were higher in the prelacteal-fed and early formula-fed groups when compared to other infants who were exclusively breastfed before hospital discharge. The results suggest that prelacteal feeds and in-hospital use of infant formula should only be given if clinically necessary, to reduce the risk of subsequent infant illness and hospital admissions. Extra support should be available to mothers who have difficulties to initiate breastfeeding and to minimize their use of infant formula.

  20. Joint attention in infant-toddler early childhood programs

    Article • Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

    This article examines how joint attention episodes constitute a core feature of relational pedagogy for infants and toddlers. It draws on social interactionist approaches to language and cognitive development to propose that joint attention may afford significant current and future potential for young children’s learning. However, most joint attention research has taken place within experimental settings, so current definitions of joint attention do not take into account the dynamic group-based nature of the infant-toddler room. In this article, the author presents findings from a study of the language environment of infant-toddler rooms to examine the characteristics of joint attention episodes as they naturally occurred in infant-toddler programs. The author illustrates how qualitatively different episodes of educator–infant joint attention support both language and cognitive development.

  21. Factors Affecting HIV-Free Survival in Infants in Nairobi County

    Article • PLoS ONE

    This study aimed to determine the prognostic factors influencing HIV-free survival among infants enrolled for HIV early infant diagnosis (EID) services in selected hospitals in Nairobi County, Kenya. A prospective cohort study design was adopted, recruiting 166 HIV-exposed infants. The 12-month follow-up period revealed an incidence rate of 9 cases per 100 person-years, with 13 infants testing positive for HIV. Key factors influencing infant HIV-free survival included maternal ART regimen, number of PMTCT visits, and knowledge of partner's HIV status. The study found a lower HIV-free survival rate compared to other African countries, but higher than some countries like South Africa. Maternal age, unemployment, and low household income were associated with poor infant HIV-free survival. The study suggests creating a special care package for younger mothers and those recently diagnosed with HIV.

  22. Assessing the impact of rising child poverty on the unprecedented rise in infant mortality in England, 2000–2017: time trend analysis

    Article • BMJ Open

    This study provides evidence that the unprecedented rise in infant mortality disproportionately affected the poorest areas of England, leaving the more affluent areas unaffected. Our analysis also linked the recent increase in infant mortality in England with rising child poverty, suggesting that about a third of the increase in infant mortality from 2014-17 may be attributed to rising child poverty.

  23. Factors influencing reproduction in captive-bred cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) from Mauritius

    Article • American Journal of Primatology

    The introduced population of cynomolgus monkey from Mauritius, apart from a reduced genetic variation due to small founder effect, has the added advantage of being naturally free from some specific pathogens that could confound biomedical studies. These advantages have thus greatly contributed to its wide use as an animal model in research. Despite the extensive use of this species in reproductive research, there is no pertinent documentation about their reproductive factors. The aim of this study was to analyze birth data from 789 females, over an eight-year period, from Bioculture (Mauritius), a commercial breeding center. Both infant and maternal factors were studied. The incidence of non-viable pregnancies as well as neonatal loss was quite low and both even decreased with advancing maternal age. This improved outcome in neonatal loss most likely originates from the center’s practice of keeping potential female breeders in their natal groups, thereby allowing them to acquire maternal skills from older females. Birth weight was lower for first born infants compared to that of subsequent higher birth order. Also female infants had a lower birth weight compared to males. Infant low birth weight was associated with an increased risk of neonatal loss. There was a positive relationship between low birth weight of the infant and placental retention in the mother.

  24. Determination of Aluminum, Chromium, and Barium Concentrations in Infant Formula Marketed in Lebanon

    Article • Journal of Food Protection

    Infant formula is a major source of food and nutrition for infants and toddlers. However, the presence of contaminants, such as toxic metals, may pose increased health risks to infants. An investigation on the occurrence of the metals: aluminum (Al), barium (Ba) and chromium (Cr), in baby formulae marketed in Lebanon was performed using inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). All brands contained detectable levels of Al and Ba. Cr was detected in 95% of brands. Mean concentrations of the metals (in µg/g) were determined to be 1.538 ± 1.428 (Al), 0.256 ± 0.593 (Ba) and 0.168 ± 0.143 (Cr). A statistical difference in the mean concentrations of Al, Ba and Cr over the two production dates of a brand was observed in 92%, 59% and 83% of samples, respectively. Our analysis of infant formulas is the first-of-its-kind in Lebanon and reveals the need for frequent monitoring and surveillance of these products intended for infant consumption.

  25. The best ways to manage sleep problems in young children

    Article • Journal of Health Visiting

    Health Visitors support families coping with infant sleep issues which are common in under-5s and linked to negative outcomes for the child and their families. Behavioural interventions such as ‘extinction’, controlled crying and gradual retreat are the recommended treatment. However, new understanding regarding infant brain development questions the use of interventions which promote leaving a young child to cry. These concerns have impacted on both parental and professional confidence in managing sleep issues. This article reviews current research to ascertain the success of behavioural interventions, the impact on maternal mood and infant mental health, and also considers parental perspectives on the controlled crying technique.

  26. Systematic Review- Obstacles for Discontinuation of Breast-Feeding

    Article • International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development

    Breastfeeding has benefits for mother and important determinant for infant normal growth and development. This study identified and recommends evidence based practice intervention aimed at overcoming BF constrain to increase continuation among mothers and to identify the factors that help to develop successful breastfeeding promotion strategies. Aims This review of article aims is to review existing literature to identify the main obstacles for breastfeeding among mothers to their infants. Method A search of Pro Quest, MEDLINE, CINAHL, MEDLINEINDEX, Clinically KEY, EBSCO, and Google Scholar was conducted to retrieve studies from January 2010 to December 2017. Using inclusion criteria, we selected both qualitative and quantitative studies that described barriers to breastfeeding. Key words used were Breastfeeding mothers exclusive breastfeeding infant breastfeeding maternal barriers of breastfeeding challenges, obstacles or problems of breastfeeding. Results Fifteen articles were included in this review six studies addressing maternal barriers for BF, five studies addressing obstacles for appropriate EBF duration and four studies addressing factors associated with early breastfeeding cessation. Result from the studies reviewed identified 30 constraints or barriers, which may lead to discontinue breastfeeding for infant. The literature is rich in documentation stating that continuation of BF is associated with many obstacles. Dr. Lamiaa Ahmed Elsayed Ahmed | Dr. Pushpamala Ramaiah | Dr. Grace Lindsay "Systematic Review- Obstacles for Discontinuation of Breast-Feeding" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-3 , April 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd23289.pdf

  27. Mothers - breast and formula infant feeding in the UK

    Article • Families Relationships and Societies

    This article draws on intergenerational research with six mother/grandmother pairs from marginalised urban Welsh locales, which involved elicitation interviews around the everyday artefacts that participants presented to symbolise their experiences of motherhood and infant care. We examine the negotiation of acceptable motherhood in relation to the intrusive policing of lifestyle choices, consumption and infant feeding from family, friends and strangers. The article argues that the moral maze of surveyed motherhood renders infant feeding a challenging, and challenged, space for women.

  28. Perezhivanie - Infant pedagogy

    Article • Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

    The personal, emotional and subjective nature of caring for infants has received little attention in socioculturally informed infant pedagogies. This article aims to present an alternative way of conceptualising the subjective and affective nature of infant care and critiques the ‘downward’ sociological focus applied by many who advocate sociocultural approaches. The argument is made that sociologically oriented interpretations of sociocultural theory often seen in early childhood education offer teachers little guidance as to how to understand subjective experience, and in doing so, overlooks the vital role ‘personal’ emotions play in adult-infant relationships.

  29. Jewish infant mortality has been calculated wrongly because of a Hebrew term.

    Article • Historical Methods A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History

    In Hebrew burial books before 1811 the term nefel is used. We found that this term had not been used correctly when infant mortality among Jews was calculated. The term was used as meaning miscarriage. It includes also babies who died within 30 days after birth. As a result a major part of infant mortality was included in the miscarriages, causing an underestimate of Jewish infant mortality.

  30. PFAS in Water Harms Infants

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    PFAS, so-called “forever chemicals”, are pollutants of increasing concern. However, there is not yet firm evidence that the types of PFAS exposure occurring in daily life cause human health impacts. We show that New Hampshire mothers whose drinking water wells were downstream of PFAS releases had more extremely low-weight births, more extremely preterm births, and higher infant mortality than did mothers whose wells were upstream of PFAS releases. Because the location of wells is generally not known, both groups of mothers have comparable demographic and health characteristics other than PFAS exposure. Extrapolating to the rest of the U.S., PFAS impose billions of dollars of costs on U.S. residents each year by worsening infant health.

  31. Salient factors in the transition to parenthood

    Article • Journal of Marriage and Family

    This study examines how parents' prenatal attachment styles and gender together influence parenting stress, parent–infant interaction, and paternity leave practices. We report how parents' prenatal attachment styles relate to parenting stress, parent–infant interaction, and paternity leave, and how attachment styles and gender interact to predict parenting outcomes.

  32. Cultural differences in maternal caregiving - how babies are soothed matters more than how fast

    Article • Developmental Psychology

    How mothers respond to their babies’ cries plays an important role in shaping early emotional development. While this is likely to be a universal trend, most research has focused on Western settings, which do not represent the way most children are cared for globally. In our study, we addressed this by comparing naturally-occuring mother–infant interactions in rural Uganda and the United Kingdom. We observed 82 babies at 3 and 6 months of age. We analysed naturalistic video recordings collected in their homes to see how quickly and in what ways mothers responded to infant distress, and how this influenced how fast babies calmed down. We found that UK mothers tended to respond more quickly, but Ugandan babies actually recovered from distress faster. We think this shows that the mother's style of response may matter more than just her speed alone, and that cultural practices influence how infants learn to manage their emotions. We also found that mothers in both cultures adapted their strategies as their babies grew, though in different ways. Mothers in Uganda mostly used breastfeeding to calm their babies, while mothers in the UK used more verbal ways to soothe. These results broaden our understanding of how diverse caregiving approaches shape healthy emotional development.

  33. Intergenerational Cycle of Responsive Parenting: The Importance of Prenatal Processes

    Article • Journal of Family Psychology

    Emotionally responsive parenting reflects warmth and supportiveness in response to infant cues and is critical for child developmental outcomes throughout the lifespan. There is evidence that parents who experienced emotionally responsive parenting in childhood are more involved and sensitive in responding to their own infant's cues (also called the intergenerational transmission of parenting). However, it remains unclear of what mechanisms explain how emotionally responsive parenting is maintained across generations. This paper examines how mothers' prenatal emotional and cognitive responses to infant crying explain how emotionally responsive parenting is transmitted across generations.

  34. Emergency baptism and stillbirth in early modern Sweden

    Article • Histories of Fetal Knowledge Production in Sweden

    This article addresses stillbirth in early modern Lutheran Sweden by examining the interplay between religious and medical birth practices and fetal and infant concepts and imagery. The history of birth intervention is shaped by the difficult negotiations involved in saving both mother and child in obstructed and complicated delivery. This article examines the specific concerns related to emergency baptism and salvation in this historical context, and the effects it had to birth practises and to valuations of the unborn. The results suggest that the emphasis in Lutheran contexts on explicit life signs, in combination with the acceptance of divine intervention in cases of unavoidable infant loss, was a mental framework that encouraged essentially utilitarian solutions and arguments.

  35. Death from Failed Protection? An Evolutionary-Developmental Theory of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

    Article • Human Nature

    Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has so far been described mainly from a risk perspective. According to this perspective, internal (biological), external (environmental) and temporal risk factors interact to facilitate this catastrophic event. While these factors clearly play a role, their overall explanatory power appears to be low, as the vast majority of infants do not die of sudden infant death syndrome despite risk exposure. The authors discuss the limitations of the classical risk-based explanatory model using the example of the two most frequently discussed risk factors for SIDS, prone positioning and bedsharing. Based on these examples, they bring together findings from evolutionary theory, comparative behavioural research and developmental paediatrics to develop a new explanatory model of SIDS.

  36. Sudden brainstem malfunction explains life-threatening apnea

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    An infant with life-threatening events of sudden and severe apnea was found to have a genetic mutation causing increased excitability of neurons. After introducing the same mutation in mice, similar events of severe apnea occurred in these animals. The events were caused by a wave of increased excitability in the brainstem, that included the regions that drive the breathing rhythm. These waves of excitability could be prevented by drugs that block sodium currents in neurons (e.g. carbamazepine), thereby decreasing excitability and preventing severe apnea in both the animals as well as the infant.

  37. Studying the immune cells of the ‘little brain’ to develop therapies for brain injury.

    Article • Glia

    The cerebellum, or the little brain, has strikingly different cell types and cell organisation compared with the cerebrum. When an infant is born premature (before 37 of 40 weeks of pregnancy) the cerebellum is often damaged. Brain damage in preterm born infants often leads to life long neurological changes, including cerebral palsy, autism and learning and memory deficits. We have no treatments for brain damage in preterm born infants and a limited understanding the fundamental changes in the cerebellum to guide therapy development. We investigated how the immune cells of the cerebellum were impacted in a model of brain injury in the preterm born infant. We found that these immune microglia had a different response to microglia in the cerebrum, using a molecular pathway called interferon y and remaining in an immune-reactive state for many weeks.

  38. The human milk micronutrient myo-inositol supports brain development

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Our new study reveals that human milk provides a key micronutrient to support the wiring of the infant brain. This work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Our starting point was a lead provided by our partners at Mead Johnson Nutrition/Reckitt who performed a detailed analysis of milk samples donated by mothers at sites in Cincinnati, Mexico City, and Shanghai. Their analysis showed that the carbocyclic sugar myo-inositol is a prominent component during the early stages of lactation when neuronal connections form rapidly in the infant brain. We then determined across multiple experimental systems that myo-inositol promotes the abundance of these connections termed synapses, including in human neurons. This work was performed in close cooperation of our Yale laboratory and our Tufts/HNRCA group, and we would like to thank the mothers for donating samples throughout lactation. You can read this study at doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2221413120.

  39. Strategies to reduce blood loss in babies born too early

    Article • PLoS ONE

    Blood loss in the first days of life has been associated with increased risk of death and diseases in very preterm infants, that is babies born too early. In this project we included experimental studies comparing the effects of interventions to preserve blood volume in the infant from birth, reduce the need for sampling, or limit the blood sampled. Mortality and abnormal development were the primary outcomes. We included 31 experimental studies enrolling 3,759 infants. Twenty-five experimental studies were pooled in the comparison delayed cord clamping or cord milking vs. immediate cord clamping or no milking. Increasing placental transfusion resulted in lower mortality during the neonatal period and during first hospitalization. The six remaining experimental studies compared devices to monitor glucose levels, blood sampling from the umbilical cord or from the placenta vs. blood sampling from the infant, and devices to reintroduce the blood after analysis vs. conventional blood sampling.

  40. Evidence of infanticide in the Cape mountain zebra (Equus zebra zebra)

    Article • Behaviour

    Infanticide is the act of killing a dependent offspring of the same species, often associated with species with extended parental care, resulting in an increase in access to either resources or reproductive opportunities by the perpetrator. Infanticide has been described across mammal species. However, for many members of the genus Equus, most documented cases of infanticide originate from captive populations or are based indirect evidence in wild populations. Therefore, it is unclear whether infanticide occurs in wild populations in many Equus species._x000D_ _x000D_ Here, we report evidence of infanticide in Cape mountain zebra(Equus zebra zebra, CMZ).Firstly, we describe an eye-witness account of aggression by bachelors towards foals, which we interpret as a probable infanticide attempt. The foals were separated from the parent group, chased and harried for a total of 45 minutes before the mothers and herd stallion were able to regain their offspring. _x000D_ _x000D_ We also report three cases of infanticide from necropsy providing photographic evidence of the external injuries. These injuries include two kick marks to the side of an infant and bites marks on the ear as well as a broken neck sustained by another infant. The injuries sustained are consistent with infanticidial injuries documented in other equids species. _x000D_ _x000D_ This study provides the first first-hand evidence of infanticide in the subspecies and the first for the species in the wild. _x000D_

  41. Child health care nurses teach infant massage to parents

    Article • Nursing Open

    Based directly on their first-hand experiences, child health care nurses reported that infant massage in parent groups positively impacts families’ well-being and is an integral part of child health care. Child health care nurses found it beneficial to teach infant massage in parental groups.

  42. Singing to infants supports social engagement

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Singing to infants, which occurs across all cultures, provides a readymade means for supporting social development and interaction. Using eye-tracking technology to track infants' moment-by-moment eye-looking, this study reveals that the rhythm of caregivers’ singing causes infant eye-looking to become synchronized or entrained to the caregivers’ social cues at sub-second timescales. As early as 2 months of age, when infants are first engaging with others in an interactive manner, infants were two times more likely to look to the singers’ eyes time-locked to the musical beat than would be expected by chance. By 6 months of age, when infants are highly experienced in face-to-face musical games and are developing increasingly sophisticated rhythmic and communicative behaviors like babbling, they were more than four times as likely to look to the singers’ eyes synchronized to the musical beats. Singers also synchronize their own behaviors to the beat, providing more positive and engaging facial expression on the beat than between beats. Importantly, the predictable rhythm of singing is essential for entrained social interaction between singer and infant. When the singing was experimentally manipulated so that it no longer had a predictable rhythm, entrainment was disrupted and infants no longer as successfully synchronized their eye-looking to the caregivers’ social cues.

  43. Understanding how mothers transmit soothing signals to calm their distressed infants

    Article • Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science

    When infants become destressed, their mothers/birthing parents use numerous soothing behaviours to try to calm them. Research suggests that mothers with postpartum depression tend to struggle to soothe their distressed infants. However, it is unclear how soothing signals are transmitted from mothers to infants, how postpartum depression disrupts these, and if treating depressed mothers can improve this process. To better understand these issues, we examined the synchrony between mother and infant physiology (heart rate variability) while healthy and depressed mothers attempted to calm their distressed babies. Healthy mother-infant pairs, as well as pairs affected by postpartum depression were assessed at two time points. We examined the healthy dyads at baseline and 9-weeks later, and examined the depressed dyads before and after the mothers received 9-weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In the healthy dyads, at both time points, mothers’ physiological changes preceded those of their infants, suggesting that the mothers led the soothing ‘dance’. Before CBT in the depressed dyads, the infants’ physiological signals led the interaction. However, after CBT, the synchrony pattern shifted, whereby the mothers’ physiology led the interaction, the same pattern seen in the healthy mothers.

  44. Did Little Albert actually acquire a conditioned fear of rats and other furry animals?

    Article • History of Psychology

    In 1920, the famous behaviorist John B. Watson once claimed that he and research assistant, Rosalie Rayner, had successfully created a conditioned fear of rats and other furry animals and objects in a young infant by pairing the presentation of the rat with a loud, startling noise. Watson also marketed a film of the study that purported to show Little Albert (as he is now known) reacting fearfully to a range of furry items, including a rat, a dog, a fur coat, and even a Santa Claus mask. A careful scrutiny of the film, however, suggests that Albert's fear of these events was at most relatively weak and well within the normal range for an infant of his age, thereby providing little evidence of conditioning. Our analysis also revealed certain discrepancies in the film which suggest that Watson edited the film to exaggerate Albert's reactions, most likely to maximize the film's impact and attract funding for his research endeavors.

  45. Differences in infant and child mortality before and after the disaster in Japan

    Article • BMJ Open

    This study integrates infant and child mortality data with GIS information to assess the influence of damages caused by a natural disaster on child healthcare. In this paper, we investigated the dynamics of infant and child mortality (age 0–9 years) in North-Eastern Japan before and after 2011.

  46. Breastfeeding support and opiate dependence: A think aloud study

    Article • Midwifery

    An intervention founded on practical, informational and environmental elements was supportive of continued breastfeeding of an infant at risk of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. Opiate dependent women were more receptive to strategies promoting a person-centered approach that were specific to their individualized infant feeding needs and delivered within an emotionally supportive environment. Barriers to the acceptability of breastfeeding advice included discouraging, prescriptive and judgemental healthcare actions and attitudes.

  47. Effect of bed rest and activity restriction on infant outcomes

    Article • Canadian Journal of Nursing Research

    I analyzed the New York PRAMS data because it is the only State asks about bed rest. I attempted to examine the effect of bed rest on the relationship between the medical and obstetrical risk factors and infant outcomes for a wider population. Although 80-90% of US and Canadian obstetricians prescribe bed rest/ activity restriction for high-risk pregnant women, there is still not enough evidence to support its effectiveness. The current study findings support the notion that bed rest/activity restriction may adversely affect infant outcomes. Specifically, when bed rest is prescribed for high-risk women with rupture of membranes.

  49. Sex Difference in Spinal Muscular Atrophy Patients – are Males More Vulnerable?

    Article • Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases

    Sex is a significant risk factor in many neurodegenerative disorders. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind sex differences could help develop more targeted therapies that would lead to better outcomes. Untreated spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the leading genetic motor disorder for infant mortality. SMA has a broad spectrum of severity ranging from prenatal death to infant mortality to normal lifespan with some disability. Scattered evidence points to a sex-specific vulnerability in SMA. However, the role of sex as a risk factor in SMA pathology and treatment has received limited attention. This study systematically investigated sex differences in sex ratio, symptom severity, motor function of different types of SMA patients, and in the development of SMA1 patients from the aggregated data of the TREAT-NMD Global SMA Registry and Cure SMA membership database by data enquiries. .

  50. Poverty reduction and infant brain activity

    Article • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    We report estimates of the causal impact of a poverty reduction intervention on brain activity in the first year of life. We draw data from a subsample of the Baby’s First Years study, which recruited 1,000 diverse low-income mother–infant dyads. Using a rigorous randomized design, we provide evidence that giving monthly unconditional cash transfers to mothers experiencing poverty in the first year of their children’s lives may change infant brain activity.

  51. The role of governance in the health expenditure–health outcomes nexus: insights from West Africa

    Article • International Journal of Social Economics

    Health expenditure in West Africa is largely out of pocket and insurance to this sector is also minimal. Given the need to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) one of which targets a reduction in mortality rates, this study focuses on examining the effect of health expenditure on health outcomes. Additionally, the study investigates the mediating effect of governance in the relationship between public health spending and health outcomes using six measures of governance as robustness checks and three types of outcomes (infant mortality, under-five mortality and life expectancy). The result of this study shows that all forms of health expenditures significantly influenced health outcomes. That is, there is a negative relationship between health expenditure, infant mortality and under-five mortality, but a positive relationship between health expenditure and life expectancy at birth. Besides, the general effect of the same quantity of public health spending is subject to the quality of governance, because countries with a higher quality of governance benefit better from their public health spending.

  52. Being and nonbeing: The existential foundations of the sadistic killer.

    Article • Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

    This article aims at a fusion of psychoanalytic theory, attachment theory and existential phenomenology in conditions first explored by Jean-Paul Sartre and Margaret Mahler. The topic describes the genesis of the sadistic killer, when considered as a once-abused infant, and attempts a subject-oriented existential account prioritising ontology as notionally revealing. A main contention is that the infant once confronted a fundamental existential terror threatening his own being, occasioned by an abusive mother and transformed, via an early emotion-driven construction of an unfulfilled partial-self—a self with holes—into a destructive hatred exercised in later encounters with females.

  53. Affordance-led framework of understanding of BIM adoption

    Article • Archnet-IJAR International Journal of Architectural Research

    Successful adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) by early adopters is crucial for its effective diffusion in a BIM infant industry. This study develops a framework of understanding of BIM adoption decision to offer structured understanding of BIM decision of an adopter in a BIM Infant Industry to support appropriate strategizing of their BIM adoption.

  54. Estimated homicides in cross-national research

    Article • Homicide Studies

    The research note highlights the potential of flawed analyses when World Health Organization's (WHO) homicide estimates are employed. The WHO homicide estimates are obtained by adjustments and regression modeling. Both procedures generate estimates that should be used cautiously, especially when inferential statistics are the goal. The reason behind this are the covariates used in the estimation procedure. Among others, the infant mortality rate and alcohol consumption are used by WHO researchers to estimate homicide rates. Then, researchers use the homicide estimates (dependent variable) in a regression analysis with the infant mortality (and/or alcohol consumption, etc.) as a predictor and likely cause an artifact of the measurement of homicides.

  55. Infants smile when a person is facing them and talking to them.

    Article • Developmental Psychology

    Do infants notice eye contact during conversations? We showed short videos clips of a woman talking. We varied whether the woman looked at the infants. In the regular case, the woman talked and looked forward toward the infant. In other cases, she had her eyes closed, glanced her eyes away, or looked to the side. In addition, we had one version where the woman turned her head to the side yet still looked forward to the infant. We showed the videos to three- or five-month-old infants. By 5 months, infants smiled more at the woman when she was making eye contact with them.

  56. Vitamin K deficiency bleeding in Australian infants 1993–2017: an Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit study

    Article • Archives of Disease in Childhood

    We present results of 25 years of continuous surveillance for vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) in Australian infants. This surveillance period covered changes in recommendations for vitamin K prophylaxis at birth and a change in the available preparation of vitamin K in Australia. Our results confirm that an intramuscular injection of 1mg of vitamin K at birth is the most effective route of administration to prevent VKDB. No adverse events due to vitamin K were reported. The number of parental refusals of vitamin K at birth have increased significantly since 2006. During the 25 years of surveillance there were 6 infant deaths, and in three infants this was associated with home birth and parents refusing vitamin K at birth. Ongoing education of pregnant women and health professionals who attend births is needed to avoid preventable infant deaths due to VKDB.

  57. A combination of lipidomics, MS imaging, and PET scan imaging reveals differences in cerebral activity in rat pups according to the lipid quality of infant formulas

    Article • The FASEB Journal

    Breast milk is considered as the most suitable food to meet all the needs of the growing infant. However it is not always possible for the mother to breastfed, and properly designed infant formulas must be used. The neonate relies to some extent on the fatty acids provided in either breast milk or formulas, allowing synthesis of complex lipids forming the membranes of nervous cells and influencing brain function. Among these important fatty acids are the so-called DHA (an omega3 fatty acid), and ARA (an omega6 fatty acid). It is now advised to supplement formulas with these 2 fatty acids present in breast milk. But the consequences on brain function of adding such fatty acids to mimic breast milk must be checked. To do this, we administrated formulas containing or not DHA & ARA to artificially reared rat pups until weaning. We measured the brain functional activity in vivo by PET scan imaging, and determined how such supplementation can modified the lipid chemistry of the brain and of the eye, an organ also very sensitive to dietary influence. We found that the supplementation normalized the brain functional activity to that of rat pups fed dam's milk. This was accompanied by specific changes induced at the brain (and eye) complex lipid chemistry levels. In conclusion, providing DHA+ARA in formulas alters the nervous tissues DHA content and lipid chemistry in the neonate to be closer to dam milk fed controls, and normalizes brain functional activity.

  58. Maternal obesity, insulin and low milk production in new mothers

    Article • Advances in Nutrition

    Breastfeeding provides important benefits for mother and infant. Exclusive breastfeeding—that is, without any other food or fluids provided to the infant—is recommended for the first six months of life by multiple public health organizations. Some mothers, despite their best efforts, have difficulty establishing and sustaining sufficient milk production to support exclusive breastfeeding. There is particular concern that obese mothers are at risk for poor breastfeeding outcomes. My program of research is pointing to mothers with less optimal glucose tolerance as being at risk for sufficient milk production. This paper, for the first time, provides a critical overview of the research pointing to insulin as possibly explaining the long observed link between maternal obesity and poor lactation outcomes.

  59. The effect of bacterial lysates on asthma exacerbations and infant wheezing

    Article • European Respiratory Review

    Bacterial lysates are known to reduce respiratory tract infections. These infections are commonly associated with asthma exacerbations and infant wheezing. In this meta-analysis we discuss the effect of bacterial lysates in the prevention of asthma exacerbations and infant wheezing episodes.

  60. Vetiver Finish in Surgical Medical Products

    Article • International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development

    Textiles are an integral part of everyone's life associated with him from cradle to grave. It is used to cover human body, thus encompassing and protecting it from dust, sunlight, wind and other foreign matter present in the external environment that may be harmful to him. Textiles in apparel have retained an important place in human life, starting now into developing of newer high technology and interdisciplinary products. Among technical textiles, medical textiles are a very promising sector which plays a vital role in health of mankind. It consists of textiles used in operative and post operative tasks in and around the patient and the medical practitioners. These products are produced either by weaving, knitting, braiding or other nonwoven techniques. Medical textiles are broadly classified as non implantable materials, implantable materials, extra corporeal devices, and hygiene products, protective and health care textiles. The use of such products helps to reduce the opportunity for contamination by biological toxins and infectious pathogens. A hygiene and health care textile consists of absorbent disposable products, such as baby infant tank wears, tampons, panty shields, etc. which are mostly single use items. Baby infant tank wears are made up of cotton fibres A Progress of vetiver finish in the Surgical Products such as Mask, Cap and Gown to kill the growth of microbes. Bacterial growth is one of the biggest fallout of non hygienic atmosphere. Further microorganisms such as bacteria, mould and fungi also cause deterioration of textiles. Hence there has been greater interest in textiles and garments that offer enhanced comfort as well as protection to the wearer. Hence to prevent such rashes some kind of an antibacterial finishes is essential. The vetiver finishes in the surgical products are subjected towards Survey. D. Anita Rachel | A. Subashini "Vetiver Finish in Surgical Medical Products" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-1 , December 2018, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd20201.pdf

  61. Non production of breast milk after consecutive normal deliveries

    Article • Nigerian Medical Practitioner

    Breastfeeding is the recommended infant and young child feeding method. Consequently while all mothers are encouraged to breastfeeding exclusively for 6 months, and continue breastfeeding with other foods till the child is aged at least 2 year, women who fail to produce breast milk despite all assistance should be identified and supported for optimal infant and young child feeding.

  62. BEBERAPA FAKTOR YANG BERHUBUNGAN DENGAN KEAKTIFAN KADER POSYANDU DI DESA PENGADEGAN KABUPATEN BANYUMAS

    Article • Jurnal Administrasi Kesehatan Indonesia

    Background: Posyandu is a maternal and baby clinic to decline the infant mortality rate, infant birth rate, and maternal mortality. The success of activities in Posyandu depends on the cadre’s activeness. Data obtained from Banyumas district office in 2013 showed that Puskesmas 1 Wangon hads the lowest percentage of active cadres in Banyumas district, especially posyandu in Pengadegan Village (36 cadres) (60%). Aims: This research aimed at identifying some factors related to the activity of cadres in Posyandu of Pengadegan Village, Banyumas Disctrict. Method: This study used an analytic survey method with total sampling of 60 cadres. The independent variables of this research are knowledge, occupation, motivation and government’s support while the activeness of cadres is as a dependent variable. The research instruments were questionnaire and cadre attendance document. Data were analyzed descriptively by using Chi Square. Results: The result shows that knowledge, work, motivation and support of posyandu are related to the activity of cadres in Posyandu of Pengadegan Village, Banyumas Disctrict. Cadres’ high activeness is influenced by good knowledge about maternal and baby clinic, high motivation, and unemployement. Conclusion: Knowledge, job, motivation and support from other stakeholders are needed to encourage cadres’ participation in the maternal and baby clinic. Coaching and refreshing cadres on an ongoing basis and giving them an award can be alternatives to improve their active participation.

  63. Infant-Mother Attachment Can Be Improved through Group Intervention: A Preliminary Evaluation in Spain in a Non-Randomized Controlled Trial

    Article • The Spanish Journal of Psychology

    Secure attachment is linked to a broad range of positive outcomes in childhood. Interventions to enhance infant-mother attachment have notably increased in the last decades. However, most of interventions are based in a individual work with the caregiver or infant-parent dyad. This work presents the results of a preliminary evaluation of a group based intervention in Spain.

  64. How Does the United States Rank According to the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative?

    Article • The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing

    The World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative is an assessment process designed to facilitate an ongoing national appraisal of progress toward the goals of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)/World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding. More than 80 countries have completed this national assessment, including the United States of America. This article describes the process undertaken by the US World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative team, the findings of the expert panel related to infant and young child feeding policies, programs, and practices and the ranking of the United States compared with the 83 other participating nations. Identified strengths of the United States include data collection and monitoring, especially by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, and the United States Breastfeeding Committee.

  65. Early adversity in fathers affects infant offspring but probiotic treatments reverse those effects.

    Article • Psychological Science

    We find a generational effect of early adversity (parental separation) in rodents whereby fear retention and extinction development is affected in the infant offspring of previously stressed fathers. We then find that probiotics are an effective treatment for these effects when they are administered to either the father (in his early life), or to the infant offspring.

  66. The interactive Now: On time-consciousness

    Article • Journal of Phenomenological Psychology

    Philosophers have grappled for ages with the question of how the self can be aware of itself. Mustn't there be a separation between what is aware and what it is aware of? In the case of the self, how can these be the same? Edmund Husserl gave an elegant answer in terms of time-consciousness, but there are several problems he did not solve, and here I attempt to do so. With the help of infancy research, I propose a solution to the enigma of self-awareness: When an infant is engaged by a caregiver, the infant perceives her as attending, and he first becomes aware of himself as the implicit target of that attending. In other words, the self is the caregiver's focal center. The event of becoming self-aware in this way is termed a You-I event. I claim that the You-I event persists in various modes throughout life and that its dynamic forms the original experience of time.

  67. What makes working mothers continue to discontinue breastfeeding

    Article • Journal of Advanced Nursing

    Aim. To describe the enablers and barriers working women experience in continuing breast milk feeding after they return to work postpartum in urban Malaysia. Background. In Malaysia, urban working women have low rates of breastfeeding and struggle to achieve the recommended 6 months exclusive breastfeeding. Design. A qualitative enquiry based on a phenomenological framework and multiple methods were used to explore women’s experiences in depth. Methods. Multiple qualitative methods using face-to-face interview and participant diary were used. Data collection took place in urban suburbs around Penang and Klang Valley, Malaysia from March–September 2011. Participants were 40 employed women with infants less than 24 months. Findings. Only 11 of the participants worked from home. Based on the women’s experiences, we categorized them into three groups: ‘Passionate’ women with a strong determination and exclusively breastfed for 6 months, ‘Ambivalent’ women who initiated breastfeeding, but were unable to sustain exclusive breastfeeding after returning to work and ‘Equivalent’ women who introduced infant formula prior to returning to work. Conclusion. Passion and to a lesser extent intention, influenced women’s choice. Women’s characteristics played a greater role in their infant feeding outcomes than their work environment.

  68. The Painful Vicissitudes of the Patient's Love: Transference-Love and the Aesthetic Conflict

    Article • Contemporary Psychoanalysis

    One of the essential elements in psychoanalysis, promoting growth of the mind, is the analyst's capacity to contain the pain of the aesthetic conflict (Meltzer, 1988) and bear the patient's primitive, often adhesive, dependent and ruthless love. The aesthetic conflict emerges in the presence of the love object and not in its absence. Mental pain seems to overwhelm the patient/infant as he is confronted by the fact that the love object, arousing an ecstatic and sublime sense of oneness is also enigmatic, ambiguous, separate, and outside his omnipotent control. This overflow of ecstasy and the pain of impending separateness can only be borne if adequately contained by the object herself. When the object is experienced as inaccessible to this primitive love, the patient/infant may recoil into autistic encapsulation, or try to penetrate forcefully through intrusive identification. The dialectic interplay between primitive love, idealization, and mature love is stressed, and illustrated in the analyses of two male patients.

  69. Breastfeeding Trends and Beliefs Among Women in West Sumatra, Indonesia

    Article • Nutrition and Health

    The study explored breastfeeding practices and women's knowledge and beliefs about infant feeding in West Sumatra, Indonesia, utilizing a mixed methods approach. Data were collected from 158 mothers at various intervals: birth, 6 weeks, 6 months, and 9 months, as part of a feasibility study on antenatal nutritional supplementation. Additionally, qualitative data were obtained from semi-structured interviews with 19 mothers, analyzed thematically. The findings showed that 84.2% of infants were exclusively breastfed before hospital discharge, increasing to 93.7% at 6 weeks, but dropping to 64.7% at 6 months. At 9 months , with 92.9% still breastfeeding at 9 months of infants continued to receive some breastmilk each day. The qualitative analysis identified three themes: mothers' positive attitudes towards breastfeeding, cultural norms favoring breastfeeding, and strong family and social support. High breastfeeding rates in West Sumatra were linked to cultural values, social support, and informed positive attitudes towards breastfeeding.

  70. What the evidence says: Neuroprotective drugs for newborns with asphyxia in low-resource settings

    Article • PLOS One

    Perinatal asphyxia (PA), or a lack of oxygen during birth, is a major cause of infant death and long-term disability, especially in developing nations (Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries, or LILMICs). In these areas, the standard life-saving treatment, therapeutic hypothermia (body cooling), is often unavailable or less effective. This study reviewed 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving over 1,000 newborns with PA in LILMICs to see if protective medications could be an effective alternative. The research found that using these pharmacologic agents showed great potential for improving outcomes. Key Findings: • Improved Survival: The medications collectively improved the survival rate of affected newborns. • Better Short-Term Health: Babies who received the drugs had better short-term results, including being more successful at feeding by mouth (successful oral feeding), less need for anticonvulsants, and having normal results on their brain imaging scans (neuroimaging features), when they were discharged from the hospital. • Most Effective Drugs: Magnesium Sulphate was the most consistently effective drug for improving these immediate short-term outcomes. Melatonin showed the greatest benefit in terms of overall survival. • Some studies also found that children continued to show better development up to 19 months after treatment. The conclusion is that these neuroprotective drugs show promise for improving both survival and brain function in newborns with PA in LILMICs. More large-scale studies are needed to confirm these results and establish these drugs as reliable treatments where cooling therapy is not a viable option.

  71. Breastfeeding by patients with serious mental illness: An ethical approach

    Article • Current Psychiatry

    This article presents two clinical cases of perinatal women with serious mental illness (SMI) who requested to breastfeed during inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. It outlines the clinical, ethical, logistical, and child-welfare considerations involved and proposes a relational-ethics framework to guide multidisciplinary decision-making in settings where mother–infant units are not available.

  72. Supportive Parenting by One Parent Can Offset Low Support from the Other

    Article • Developmental Psychology

    In this study of 455 Norwegian families with toddlers, mothers’ and fathers’ supportive parenting was examined in relation to children’s behavior in first grade. When one parent showed high levels of supportive parenting, children had fewer behavior problems and better social skills, even if the other parent provided low support. These associations held after accounting for infant characteristics linked to later behavior.

  73. Do racial stereotypes contribute to medical misdiagnosis of child abuse?

    Article • The Wrongful Conviction Law Review

    This study looked at how racial stereotypes might lead doctors in emergency rooms to wrongly suspect child abuse when the child is Black or miss possible abuse when the child is White. The researchers focused on racial stereotypes of abuse to see if participants would attribute diagnoses to abuse details or infection details when the infant patient was Black versus White. They also examined whether race bias was increased or decreased by a family’s involvement with CPS. Although ultimately doctors were not more likely to suspect abuse if the child was Black than White, they did judge the Black child’s parents behavior more negatively, regardless of the family’s involvement with CPS. These findings help illuminate how race may lead to different outcomes in cases of potential child abuse.

  74. Analytic Eroticism: Commentary on Schoen’s “Erotic Entanglements”--a discussion.

    Article • Psychoanalytic Dialogues

    I highlight the ways in which a patient’s infant sexual history can manifest with palpable impact within the co-created analytic field. When maternal eroticism has not been plentiful and well attuned, significant clinical challenges ensue. A clinician’s embodied, libidinal capacity for analytic eroticism is essential in engaging a patient at the level of the maternal erotic matrix. A mutual encounter in facing loss is imperative in stimulating psychic growth.

  75. Parents' spatial language and gestures shape how long infants look during puzzle play

    Article • Developmental Psychology

    In this study, we observed parents playing with a puzzle with their 9-month-old infants. We recorded what the parents said and did (e.g., pointing) and we used a head-mounted eye tracker to measure where the infant looked at each moment. We were interested in how parents’ language and their gestures were related to where infants looked. We found that infants’ attention was engaged when parents used spatial words (e.g., “put it HERE”) or labels (e.g., “it’s a MONKEY”), especially if they pointed at the same time, more than when they used more neutral language (e.g., “Look at this”). This study adds to our understanding of how caregivers’ language contributes to infants’ in-the-moment attention, even before children have begun to talk.

  76. Touching Faces: How infant capuchin monkeys caress others

    Article • Journal of Comparative Psychology

    It is common to think infants are on the receiver end of social interactions. However, our study shows that infant capuchins actively touch others when receiving affectionate interactions. This behavior fits the description of a pleasurable touch as a caress would. We evaluated the context and how this touch develops through the first three years of life of 8 wild capuchins. This research shows that infants have active roles in their relationships and can reciprocate.

  77. Understanding compassion in infant care: Development of the Maternal Compassion Preoccupation Scale

    Article • Journal of Family Psychology

    Mothers caring for infants experience deep compassion, but this compassion can be emotionally complex. It can lead to compassion fatigue (feeling emotionally drained), compassion satisfaction (feeling fulfilled by caregiving), and self-compassion (being kind to oneself). Our research developed and validated a new questionnaire, the Maternal Compassion Preoccupation Questionnaire (MCPQ), to measure these experiences. This tool can help researchers and professionals better understand the emotional challenges and rewards of infant caregiving.

  78. Predicting Timing of Parenthood

    Article • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    We aimed to predict if and when young adults would become parents. Using data from a multi-decade, longitudinal study, we measured 19 factors related to their interpersonal connections and characteristics when they were aged between 23 and 28 years. These factors converged into four groups: Connected (32.4%): Close to family and friends, clear sense of identity, empathetic. Constricted Empathy (32.3%): Showed secure attachment styles but less empathy. Insecure (24%): Lacking identity clarity and attachment security. Disconnected (11.3%): Disconnected from family and friends. We tracked these young adults until they were 37 years old. Compared to connected individuals, those who were disconnected were 65% less likely to have become parents, and those who were insecure were 78% less likely to be parents. Among those who did become parents, individuals in the constricted empathy and disconnected groups were more likely to have entered parenthood earlier (before age 25). Constricted empathy parents reported higher levels of hostile parenting at one year postpartum. In contrast, connected parents, compared to all other groups, reported higher levels of warm parenting and stronger parent-infant bonds.

  79. "EB Naevi-like Lesion in Infant with Bullous Pemphigoid: A Case Study"

    Article • IgMin Research

    Epidermolysis Bullosa Naevi (EBN) is a subset of melanocytic nevi with atypical features arising at sites of blistering in patients with congenital EB. It may be clinically misdiagnosed as melanoma and may represent a challenge for the dermatologist. Bullous Pemphigoid (BP) consists of an autoimmune condition presenting with subepidermal blisters, usually affecting the elderly and rarely observed in children The case is reported of an infant who presented with pruritic erythematous bullous lesions, initially appearing over the trunk and legs with progression to arms and face.

  80. Reducing Child Mortality in Bangladesh: Key Macroeconomic Factors

    Article • Journal of Public Health Policy

    This research focuses on understanding the key factors influencing child mortality in Bangladesh, specifically neonatal, infant, and under-five mortalities, for the period from 1991 to 2018. The study also explores the implications of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) and Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) for developing countries. Using annual time series data and advanced econometric techniques, the researchers sought to identify the most effective strategies for reducing child mortality. The study found that certain determinants played a crucial role in combating child mortality in Bangladesh. These include ensuring newborns are protected against tetanus, increasing healthcare expenditure, and ensuring that births are attended by skilled healthcare staff. It was observed that employing more healthcare workers and improving healthcare provisions could further reduce child mortality. Importantly, the research suggests that developing countries with similar macroeconomic profiles can achieve similar outcomes in reducing child mortality by adopting the policies and strategies that have proven successful in Bangladesh over the past three decades.

  81. Predation on wild lemurs and other fauna

    Article • Folia Primatologica

    Introduced species have the potential to negatively impact Madagascar’s endemic flora and fauna, but studies have primarily utilized camera trap observations and occupancy modelling to better clarify the presence/absence and temporal overlap of endemic and exotic predators. Longitudinal data from field research sites are important as they can provide a finer understanding of predator dynamics and their effects on endemic species. Results from a study of predation at the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve, in southern Madagascar used a combination of scat sampling, field observations and camera trap data to better assess the predator. Results indicate that forest cats (Felis catus), are effective predators of both adult and infant lemurs and appear to be a constant mammalian predator, utilizing mammal prey more than dogs. Dogs are also lemur predators but may also act as scavengers. The fosa, Cryptoprocta ferox, are also present but may not hunt in the area continuously. The killing of an adult ring-tailed lemur by two men from outside the area indicate culturally imposed taboos against lemur killing may no longer be effective given that new arrivals may not share the same local cultural restrictions.

  82. Determinants of Low Birth Weight in Indonesia

    Article • Journal of Pediatric Nursing

    This study investigates the factors contributing to low birth weight (LBW) in Indonesia, which remains a significant concern due to its impact on infant health and future disease risks. Using data from the 2017 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey, the study examined various maternal and socio-demographic factors associated with LBW. The findings highlight the importance of maternal antenatal care (ANC) visits in reducing LBW risk, emphasizing the need for increased ANC utilization through targeted health promotion efforts.

  83. The Good Mother in Ann and Jane Taylor's Poetry for Children

    Article • Children s Literature Association Quarterly

    This article discusses some of the earliest popular verse written specifically with a child audience in mind: Ann and Jane Taylor's Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804-1805) and Rhymes for the Nursery (1806). It focuses in particular on the Taylor sisters' depiction of the good mother as a type for the Romantic-era woman poet.

  84. Disinhibited attachment behavior among infants reared at home.

    Article • Personality Disorders Theory Research and Treatment

    The article focuses on disinhibited attachment behavior (DAB) in infants. DAB is a behavior characterized by a lack of reticence with strangers, limited behavioral differentiation among adults, lack of checking back with caregivers in unfamiliar situations, and, for some children, willingness to make physical contact with and/or go off with strangers. It is thought to be the result of non-optimal caregiving. DAB has primarily been studied among infants reared in institutions. Little is known about risk factors for DAB among infants reared at home, although former studies have linked DAB with maternal psychiatric hospitalization and maternal borderline personality disorder. We studied if DAB was higher in 1-year-old infants of mothers with severe mental illness (SMI) and in infants of mothers with high levels of personality disorder symptoms compared to infants of mothers in a nonclinical control group. We did not find higher levels of DAB in infants of mothers with SMI, but we did find higher levels of DAB in infants of mothers with high levels of personality disorder symptoms. Most of the mothers with high levels of personality symptoms also had SMI, so comorbidity might play a role in infant DAB.

  85. Early Introduction of Weaning Foods to Infants in Madura Culture: A Transcultural Nursing Analysis

    Article • IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science

    In our study, we looked at why some Madurese mothers introduce solid foods to their babies before they are six months old, which is not recommended by the World Health Organization. We found that factors like education, economic status, cultural values, and more play a role in this practice. Many mothers in our study had lower education and economic status, and some cultural beliefs influenced their decisions. This information can help us find ways to encourage healthier infant feeding practices in this community while respecting their cultural values.

  86. Empowering Women for Optimal Child Feeding

    Article • Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science Journal

    The findings emphasize the importance of empowering women and addressing social factors to improve child feeding behaviors. This research contributes to promoting healthy child development and underscores the need for empowering women in promoting optimal infant and young child feeding practices.

  87. Non-Puerperal Induced Lactation among Married Women: Islamic Jurisprudence and Contemporary Practice

    Article • Journal of College of Sharia & Islamic Studies

    Among Muslims, milk kinship elucidates the relationships established by a wet-nurse and her breastfed infant, prohibiting marriage between those it relates after the fulfillment of prerequisites. When galactagogues are used in the non-gestational lactation state, the relationship between motherhood and fatherhood through human milk can be questioned. Therefore, this study by Fouzia bint Abdulaziz al-Hreashy, & Omar Bin Ibrahim Al Mohaimeed, sheds light on the jurisprudential opinion of this relationship and provide examples of it from real, contemporary life.

  88. Human Donor Milk in Maternity

    Article • British Journal of Midwifery

    Human donor milk should be prioritised when breastfed infants require feeding supplements as advised by the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund. The lack of human donor milk in maternity settings leads to the use of commercial milk formula for supplementation purposes. The Gibb’s reflective cycle is used to learn from a clinical scenario in which human donor milk is not available in the maternity setting for a healthy term infant requiring supplementation.

  89. Dental pathology

    Article • Handbook for Dental Chair Side Assistants Part 1

    Dental pathology is the science that investigates the causes, progression and effects of oral health related diseases. Hard tissue pathologies involve bones and teeth. While soft tissue pathologies involve oral and paraoral region epithelia and mesenchyme. Some of the oral pathologies have been discussed. Developmental defects of lips include cleft lip and palate which causes difficulty in feeding, phonation, micrognathia and also has psychological impact.Double lip is the redundant fold of tissue on mucosal side of lip, more common on upper lip. Fissured tongue is generally associated with Melkerson Rosenthal syndrome, Down syndrome, Benign migratory glossitis.Geographic tongue/benign migratory glossitis is constantly changing pattern of serpiginous white lines surrounding areas of smooth, depapillated mucosa. Germinated teeth arise from division of a single tooth germ resulting in incomplete formation of two teeth. Talon cusp which arises lingually from the cingulum areas of a maxillary or mandibular permanent incisors is more prevalent in Rubenstein Taybi syndrome. Supernumerary teeth are more prevalent in permanent dentition and in the maxilla more than mandible. Environmental enamel hypoplasia is the incomplete or defective formation of the organic enamel matrix of teeth. Amelogenesis imperecta can be hypoplastic, hypocalcified or hypomaturation types. Natal teeth are teeth present in infant mouth at birth and present a risk of aspiration, trauma to tongue and interfere breastfeeding. Premalignant lesions are morphplogically altered tissue in which cancerlis more likely to develop than apparent normal counterparts egLeukoplakia, Erythroplakia, Actinic chelitis. The metasatic spread of oral squamous cell carcinoma is mainly through the lymphatics to the ipsilateral cervical lymph nodes Oral submucousfibrosisIs a precancerous disorder characterized by abnormal collagen depositioncausing burning sensation ,opaque white fibrous bands leading to difficulty in opening mouth. Fibroma is a firm sessile/ predunculate swelling having same color as surrounding tissues. Haemangioma can be capillary or cavernous types. Salivary gland pathology like mucocele is mainly caused due to trauma and spillage of mucin into the surrounding soft tissues .Xerostomia has multitude of etiological factors like developmental aplasia of salivary glands, radiation, systemic diseases, sjogren syndrome etc.Medications responsible can be antihistamine, antidepressant,antipyschotic, sedatives and anxiolytics, antihypertensive, and anticholinergics. Inflammation is defined as the local protective response of living mammalian involving host cells,blood vessels. Its cardinal signs are pain(dolor), heat(calor), redness(rubor), swelling(tumor), loss of function(functionlaesa). The acute inflammation response is rapid( lasting less than 2 weeks ) and provides early body reaction delivering leukocytes and plasma proteins to sites of injury , resolves quickly and is usually followed by healing. Chronic inflammation is of prolonged duration in weeks to years in which continuing inflammation ,tissue injury andhealing often by fibrosis proceeds simultaneously.Granulomatous inflammation is a distinctive pattern of chronic inflammation with the presence of activated macrophages with scattered lymphocytes. Discoloration of teeth can be extrinsic egwith tobacco or intrinsic as with tetracycline ingestion at formative age. Ectodermal dysplasia is an inherited disorder involving ectodermal structures like skin,hair,nails,teeth and eccrine glands causing trichodysplasia, onchodysplasia, odontodysplasia. Lichen planus is an autoimmune, mucocutaneous lesion with cutaneous changes on flexor surfaces presenting Wickham’s straie. Erythema multiforme is aglistening,ulcerative,mucocutaneous disease with target lesion/ bull’s eye lesion on the tongue , the palate ,the lips and the gingiva. Congential ichthyosis is a group of monogenetic disorders of cornification sometimes associated with systemic symptoms. The oral manifestations are a high arched palate, periodontits, dental caries and reduced salivary flow. Osteogenesis imperfecta is caused due to mutation in col1a1 on 17q21 &col1a2 on 7q22:1 leads to fragility &porosity of bones, blue sclera and deafness. Pyogenic granuloma is a vascular lesion that occurs on both mucosa and skin and appears as an overgrowth of tissue due to irritation , physical trauma or hormonal factors.

  90. Techniques for measuring growth of premature born infants

    Article • PLoS ONE

    We searched techniques for measuring the body size of infants, such as body length and head circumference and cranial volume of the head. We focussed on touchless techniques, so measuring without touching the infant, e.g. with 3D cameras. We tried to find 3D camera techniques that could measure extremely premature born infants from outside the incubator, without opening the incubator's doors.

  92. Beliefs about family-school relationships

    Article • Revista de Estudios e Investigación en Psicología y Educación

    This work studied pre-service teachers' (or trainee teachers) beliefs about family-school relationships. We run a quasi-experimental design in which we compared the ideas of pre-service infant teachers (or pre-service preschool teachers) and pre-service primary school teachers before pre-service preschool teachers were trained to develop skills to collaborate with families (experimental group, EG). Primary pre-service teachers did not receive any training (control group, CG). After the training, we measured their ideas and identified changes in the pre-service preschool teachers group. Students in the CG kept their beliefs unchanged, which were significantly more prone to support teachers’ authority and parental subordination and parents’ carelessness compared to the EG.. Perceived competence for family-school relationship did not change significantly in either group. However, significant correlations between beliefs and perceived competence were found.

  93. Caregiver stress could change how children learn language

    Article • Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research

    How caregivers interact with their children can shape how children learn and use language as they grow. We have shown that if caregivers are more stressed, they may talk less around their infant at home, and that this could lead to lower language outcomes in toddlers. This paper looks at these links between stress and language learning in infants who are at higher risk of having conditions such as autism.

  94. Recurrent Meningitis caused by Salmonella in an Infant.

    Article • British Journal of Hospital Medicine

    Salmonella meningitis is very rare. Clinicians and parents should be alert to the possibility of relapse weeks after an apparent satisfactory clinical response to antibiotics. This article reports an infant with recurrent Salmonella meningitis that was treated and discharged from hospital successfully.

  95. CHOLERA MEFA VACCINE: A novel technique employed against an enteric disease

    Article • PLoS ONE

    Cholera has caused seven pandemics and continues to affect 3-5 million people annually worldwide. The disease is caused when bacteria enters orally and colonizes the intestine, eventually producing toxins that cause diarrhea and dehydration. We have developed a vaccine candidate using a novel technique which is protective against colonization in adult rabbit model. Additionally, an infant rabbit model, that were protected from cholera when their mothers were immunized during pregnancy, has been developed in this study which fills a crucial gap in studying the pre-clinical efficacy of cholera vaccine candidates.

  96. Factor structure of the Mini-Maternal Behavior Q-Sort

    Article • Infancy

    The Mini-Maternal Behavior Q-Sort (Mini-MBQS) is a gold standard measure of parental sensitivity. We found two subscales of the Mini-MBQS and validated these subscales by testing associations with infant attachment. Infants with insecure and disorganized attachment had parents with lower sensitivity on both subscales.

  97. Needs for and barriers to orchestrating baby care

    Article • Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

    The availability of effective instrumental support may affect the physical and mental wellness of postpartum mothers. We investigate the practices of 84 new mothers in Hong Kong mobilizing their support network to help with childcare, their experiences with infant-centric family informatics in the process, and the barriers, needs, and expectations that emerged.

  98. Published Professional Advice Books for Mothers of Infants, 1900 - 1950: Experts Change Their Ideas

    Article • Journal of Family History

    This essay examines print literature targeting American mothers of infants from the turn of the twentieth century through the 1950s, analyzing text excerpts from “baby books” spanning six decades and providing background illuminating those texts and their authors. Books authored by Benjamin Spock, Arnold Gesell, and John B. Watson are reviewed, among others. Changes in recommended feeding and toilet-training practices, sleeping arrangements, and behavioral expectations of babies, as well as the variation in style and tone of the experts’ advice are noted. Parent advice publications grew in popularity as changing family structures removed traditional sources of information and support for mothers, and the public came to highly regard scientific information and seek expert guidance in aspects of their lives previously governed by traditional wisdom. Publications of the federal Children’s Bureau and that agency’s role in advising parents are reviewed as well. Despite the advice-givers’ presentation of their recommendations as universal and scientific, their writings more accurately serve as a chronicle of changing patterns of beliefs and attitudes of middle-class society rather than an empirical body of knowledge about infant growth and development.

  99. Postpartum Depression Impacts Infants' Social Development Differentially Across Cultures

    Article • Developmental Psychology

    Postpartum depression adversely affects mother-infant interaction and infants’ social development. For example, having a depressed mother decrease infants’ tendency to share attention. However, this effect has only been documented in Western cultures. Therefore, this study investigated whether the impact of postpartum depression could be demonstrated in a broader (non-Western) cultural context. Our results suggest that this effect of postpartum depression is culture-sensitive. Infants in more interdependent cultures were not affected in the same way as we have observed in the West. Our leading hypothesis is that extended family structures and social networks mitigate the adverse effects of having a depressed mother.

  100. Parents' experiences of fetal or infant loss and legacy

    Article • Journal of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine

    "Legacy" is a word that can be used in many different ways, often in conjunction with the achievements of celebrities or the elderly after their long and fruitful lives. In this study, 11 parents who experienced infant or fetal death reflected on their child's brief life, lasting legacy, and how hospital staff and others can honor their legacy in life and practice. Their stories and insights remind us that even when life and time together are short, a child's legacy can have far-reaching impacts on families, systems, and communities.

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