ABSTRACT
In recent years, the issue of what happens to mothers and infants in the period immediately following birth has received attention both from researchers and from new and prospective parents. Hospitals traditionally separated the mother and infant just after birth and for much of their hospital stay, caring for the infant in the nursery and for the mother in the maternity ward. Pediatricians Klaus and Kennell (1976, 1982) and their associates made strong claims that separation of mother and infant may disrupt the formation of a maternal bond to the infant and that the first minutes and hours after birth are the most crucial to the formation of this bond. Proponents of early contact suggested that just after birth the mother and infant should lie together in a warm and private place, joined when possible by the father. Such early contact, Klaus and Kennell suggested, facilitates the formation of a warm, loving bond between the parents and their newborn. When mother and infant are separated, this bond is said to form more slowly, or perhaps not at all. Klaus and Kennell’s claim was never an extreme one of early contact being the sole factor in human maternal behavior, yet their work became the focal point for research and discussion concerning mother-infant bonding.
