Consistency and change in styles of mothering

The idea that the immediate postpartum period is particularly important for the developing relationship between mother and child is being increasingly discussed; however, little is known of the long-term significance of the individual differences in adjustment found in this period. A longitudinal study of 70 mother-baby pairs showed that difficulities during feeds were related to longer labour and to measures of the baby's state at birth. Differences between babies in the latency with which they responded by crying to interruption of sucking (in tests of non-nutritive sucking) were also related to the smoothness of the feed. Measures of affectionate maternal behaviour were associated with differences between babies in sucking rate, and were not influenced by labour and delivery. During later observations (8-30 weeks), strong consistency in individual differences across age was found in the levels of maternal touching, vocalizing, and responsiveness to baby's vocalizing. Maternal affectionate contact during early feeds (babies up to 10 days old) was related to these later maternal measures for breast-fed babies. Other aspects of coordination and warmth in the early feeds did not correlate with later measures, which suggested that predictions based on observations early in the neonatal period should be made with caution. Measures of maternal response to crying showed little consistency across the first seven months and were influenced by how much the baby cried at earlier ages.