PARENT-CHILD TOUCH AS INNATE

Recent clinical observations of early parent-neonate interactions have enabled researchers to "discover" specific patterns of touch that likely have been ingrained in humans for millennia. Many of these patterns are observable only when the parent and newborn are left alone in the first hours of life, uninterrupted by caregivers, medical protocols or other "modern" intrusions.

In Sweden, for instance, researchers have found that newborns placed on the mother's stomach immediately after birth, and left undisturbed for a while, will exhibit a very specific sequence of movements-lip-smacking, then head-turning and salivating-that culminate in the newborn's crawling up to the breast on its own, locating the nipple and starting to feed. The infants allowed the "leisure" to find the breast on their own are more likely to have correct sucking technique at one hour postpartum than infants separated from the mother for assessments or dressing. This finding led Righard et al. to recommend that contact between infant and mother not be interrupted in the first hours of life or until the two have accomplished the first breast-feed. Moreover, the investigators observed that infants born to mothers who received medical interventions such as pain medications, and infants who were separated from their mothers for cleaning, eye ointment or vitamin K performed this "breast crawl" much less successfully.^46,21

Researchers have also observed that mothers exhibit a very orderly and predictable set of behaviors when they first see and come into contact with their newborns. They begin by hesitantly touching the infant's extremities with their fingertips. Within four or five minutes, they begin caressing the child's trunk with the palm, simultaneously showing progressively heightened interest that continues for several minutes. By the end of nine minutes, fingertip touch has dropped substantially, palm contact has more than doubled, and touch now emphasizes the trunk rather than the extremities.⁴⁷

Still other studies have shown that mothers can identify their newborns by tactile clues alone. This discriminative ability is learned without intent during mothers' routine, early interactions with their infants. Kaitz et al. blindfolded new mothers and had them stroke the top of the hand of three newborns, one of which was their own. Each mother then guessed which infant was hers. The majority of the women were successful in guessing, if they had been with their infant for at least an hour since delivery.⁴⁸ Fathers were able to do the same.49 This ability to identify the newborn was not based on olfactory, auditory or other nontactile clues.

The idea that specific patterns of parental touch are innate, preprogrammed-" hard-wired"-in humans suggests that touch is much more powerful than many of us had previously imagined. This naturally endowed "tool" should be nurtured and encouraged in the clinical neonatal setting.

Many newborns- if allowed to lie undisturbed on their mother's abdomen-will exhibit a precise sequence of movements that culminate in their reaching and suckling the nipple. Researchers see this "breast crawl" as an innate mechanism enabling infants to locate their food source.