The Effects of Prematurity on Development : Outline and Introduction

Advances in neonatal intensive care have significantly improved the survival rate of premature infants in the past two decades. Modern medical technology has continued to push back the limits of mortality, resulting in more aggressive interventions so that infants as young as 23 weeks gestation with weights as low as 500 grams may now survive (Szatmari, Saigal, Rosenbaum & Campbell, 1994). Data that documents the outcome of these infants also imply that many more infants that are premature remain in hospitals for longer periods than ever before. Prolonged hospital care intrudes upon maternal interactions, and mother-infant bonding, where interactions take place in a newborn intensive care unit, often separating mothers and their infants for long periods of time, resulting in limited opportunities for mothers to feed or nurture their premature infant (Eckerman & Oehler, 1992).