Israeli researchers find that maternal skin-to-skin contact with pre-term infants are related to “dynamic cascades of child physiological regulation and parental provisions in shaping developmental outcome and may inform the construction of more targeted early interventions.”
The study’s conclusion:
“These findings are the first to demonstrate long-term effects of early touch-based intervention on children’s physiologic organization and behavioral control and have salient implications for the care practices of premature infants. Results demonstrate the dynamic cascades of child physiological regulation and parental provisions in shaping developmental outcome and may inform the construction of more targeted early interventions.”
Feldman, R., Rosenthal, Z., Eidelman, A.; Maternal-Preterm Skin-to-Skin Contact Enhances Child Physiologic Organization and Cognitive Control Across the First 10 Years of Life. Biological Psychiatry. Online October 4, 2013.
