Exploring Neonatal Touch

This paper reviews the literature on the positive and negative effects of touch on infants. The positive effects are mainly shown through massage literature while the negative effects are exemplified in studies on ‘care touch’. The discrepancies between both sides of the literature are then discussed and the paper concludes that massage touch is safe and beneficial. A discussion follows on how to make massage an effective program in Neonatal Intensive Care Units through parental massage programs, with an emphasis on moderate pressure massage and priority placed on infants with the most problematic histories. Introduction In different parts of the world people use various techniques to nurture their young, but a common practice that is often used is touch. The Gujarati in Western India massage their infants because they believe it increases circulation, cultivating beauty and strong bones. Some British parents massage and rub their infants because they believe it strengthens the mother-child connection. In New Zealand, infant touch is centralized around the knees and ankles to help the child’s joints, whereas in Russia, touch is thought to help the development of the central nervous system (Barnett, 2005). Whatever the motivation, touch has been a consistent and beneficial technique in infant development in many cultures. In the US however, the effects of touch are just starting to be explored. One specific way touch is being looked at is in relation to premature infants. The number of premature infants born in the US has increased by 30% over the past 25 years. In America alone, half a million premature infants are born every year (Nordqvist, 2006). With this growing number of premature infants comes a growing concern for their care. Due to the tendency of premature infants to be underweight, a lot of attention has been dedicated to help neonates develop and to minimize the stressors they face. One main topic of dispute is whether unnecessary touch is a stressor that should be avoided or a beneficial technique that helps development. There are two kinds of touch: care touch and neonatal massage. Care touch includes daily procedures in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) such as feeding, changing diapers, and Mind Matters: The Wesleyan Journal of Psychology Vol. 3 (2008) 39-47