View clinical trials related to Mother-Child Interaction.
Filter by:In the study, the researchers aim to investigate the impact of contact restrictions during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on newborns and their parents. At the onset of this COVID-19 pandemic, contact restrictions in Germany were introduced on March 16th, 2020. These included, among others, the ban on visits to hospitals. This also applied to visits by fathers of newborn children. In many hospitals, fathers were allowed to accompany the mother in the delivery room for birth, but had to leave the hospital before the mother was being transferred to the ward. Fathers were not allowed to visit their wives and newborns until discharge several days later. The hypothesis of this study is that these contact restrictions have an influence on mother-infant interaction as well as on the psychological well-being of the parents. Furthermore, the investigators postulate that these restrictions additionally have a long-term effect on neonatal stress signaling pathways. For this purpose, children are studied, who were born during the period of strict contact restrictions from March, 16th to April, 30th, 2020. The children will be assessed at about six months of age.
The planned study will investigate the quality of mother-child interaction at the age of 6 months as well as the expression and methylation of candidate genes of stress signaling pathway in mature infants. At best, mother and the healthy, term newborn are undisturbed after birth. This creates optimal conditions for the development of a good mother-child interaction. The results of the mother-child interaction and the molecular genetic investigations will be compared to the results of the randomized controlled delivery room skin-to-skin study (deisy, clinicaltrial.gov identifier: NCT 01959737). This study showed a significant difference in the mother-child interaction and expression of candidate genes in preterm infants with or without skin-to-skin contact after birth. The investigators hypothesize that the quality of mother-child interaction at the age of six months will be better in term newborns without postpartal separation of mother and child than in preterm infants with or without skin contact after birth. The second hypothesis is that there will be a difference in the expression and methylation of candidate genes of stress signaling pathway in these infants.
The first hours after birth are a sensitive period for promotion of optimal mother-child-interaction and secure attachment. Maternal sensitivity and responsivness are high in the first hours after birth due to high oxytocin levels. Developing optimal mother-child-interaction is more difficult for preterm mothers because mother and child are separated after birth and the preterm infant is not able to show strong signs to promote maternal sensitivity. We hypothesize that promoting skin-to-skin contact of VLBW infants and their mothers for 60 minutes within the first hours after birth improves mother-child-interaction at 5 to 6 months corrected age. We also hypothesize that reactivity of HPA axis and molecular patterns of stress signaling pathways differ in preterm infant with or without SSC after birth.