BIRTH AND ‘BONDING’ IN NON‐INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES

Abstract

To determine whether women giving birth in traditional societies maintained early and extended skin-to-skin contact with their neonates and nursed them immediately, descriptions of childbirth in 186 nonindustrial societies were examined. Most cultues made no special effort to get mothers in body contact with infants in the minutes after birth: almost always the neonate was bathed, generally by a female birth assistant, and in 54% the baby was placed in a cradle or basket. Skin-to-skin contact was uncommon since the infant was given nude to the mother in only 14% of societies. In 98% mother and baby subsequently rested together. In only 27% were fathers allowed to be present during childbirth. Few cultures permitted immediate postpartum nursing, and the 1st breast-feeding was delayed 24 h or more in 52%. On anthropological ratings, there was no increase in maternal affection in societies which fostered mother-infant body contact, in paternal involvement when fathers were allowed at childbirth or in breast-feeding duration in those which permitted early nursing.