Does human maternal behaviour after delivery show a characteristic pattern?

Specific kinds of maternal behaviour such as nesting, retrieving, grooming and exploring, are seen in non-human mammalian mothers immediately before, during and after delivery. In this study 22 human mothers were filmed during the first 10 minutes of contact with their normal nude full-term infants, who were placed beside them in private rooms in hospitals in Guatemala and the US; and nine mothers of premature infants were filmed on their first three visits to the nursery. Another 10 Guatemalan mothers and infants were observed for 10 minutes almost immediately after delivery in hospital. These observations were compared to maternal behaviour after home deliveries in California. After hospital delivery all US mothers, but only half of the Guatemalans, began touching their infants' extremities with their fingertips and proceeded within a few minutes to palm contact on the trunk. US mothers had an intense interest in eye-to-eye contact. Mothers of premature infants showed only fragments of this behaviour. In home births when the mothers are active participants in delivery, they pick up the infant immediately after birth, stroke its face with their fingertips and start breast-feeding within the first minutes after delivery. Initially the infant only licks the nipples. there is striking elevation in mood in the parents. These observations focus attention on reciprocal behaviour patterns that develop early between mother and infant and which serve to unite them.