ABSTRACT
Introduction One of the principal goals of evolutionary medicine is to identify and examine consequences to the health of modern humans that are derived from incompatibilities between the lifestyles and environments in which humans currently live, and the conditions under which human biology previously
Contents Introduction................................................................................................ 127 Encouraging Infant Independence and the Separation of Mothers and Babies ................................................................................................... 128 The Role of Hospital Birth in Separating Mothers and Babies ........... 130 The Consequences of Mother-Infant Separation .................................. 132 The Importance of Skin-to-Skin Contact ............................................... 133 Case Study: The Trial ................................................................................ 136
Methods ................................................................................................. 136 Results .................................................................................................... 137
Sample and Analyses ...................................................................... 137 Proximity........................................................................................... 139 Breast Feeding Initiation ................................................................. 140 Breast Feeding Continuation .......................................................... 142 Maternal and Infant Sleep .............................................................. 143 Sleep Proximity in the Home Environment ................................. 144
Discussion .............................................................................................. 144 Incorporating Evolutionary Perspectives into Policy and Practice .... 146 References ................................................................................................... 147
evolved.1,2 A related approach specic to infant and child health, known as ethno-paediatrics (the comparative study of parents and infants across cultures) explores the way different caregiving styles affect the health, wellbeing, and survival of infants and children.3 The conuence of evolutionary medicine and ethno-paediatrics has provided fertile ground for the emergence of what we have termed evolutionary paediatrics-an approach to infant and child health that draws upon cross-species, cross-cultural, historical, and palaeoanthropological evidence to inform critical examination of Western postindustrial and biomedical models of infant care. Over the course of the last decade biological anthropologists and paediatric clinicians with an interest in evolution have been instrumental in the development of this area of study, which (as I will later demonstrate) is now nding a foothold within aspects of mainstream infant and child health care. One of the key features of the growing success of evolutionary paediatrics has been the effort of its proponents to use the evidence generated by their studies to ameliorate the iatrogenic effects of mismatches between evolved mother-infant biology and Western postindustrial/biomedical infant care practices.4-6 Successes have been achieved by challenging both parents and practitioners to reexamine key assumptions about infant care and development in light of evolutionary perspectives on maternal-infant behaviour and physiology. Where necessary, this has necessitated the proponents of evolutionary medicine directly involving themselves in clinical trials that test the validity of interventions informed by an evolutionary perspective.7
