Maternal touch at 1st contact with the newborn infant

Human mothers have been reported to exhibit a species-characteristic pattern of tactile contact with their newborn infants that begins with fingertip touch of infant extremities and progresses to palmar massaging of the infant trunk. This study presents data on maternal tactile interaction during 10 min of contact following each of 66 deliveries. Most of the women in the study were of Hispanic origin and delivered with midwives in an El Paso, Texas maternity center. Time-sampling techniques were used with tactile behaviors recorded every 10 sec. Most observations began less than 10 min after birth. The statistical analysis revealed that maternal tactile behavior in the 1st 10 min of active interaction is more variable than previously reported. No evidence was offered of a pattern of touch progression: active tactile exploration appeared to vary with the gender of the infant and parity and socioeconomic or sociocultural background of the mother.