Intersubjectivity in interactions between breastfeeding infants and their mothers: a longitudinal observational study in the first year of life

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate how mothers and infants contribute mutually to breastfeeding. The spontaneous interactions of 20 breastfeeding dyads were video-recorded at home, at 2, 4, 6, 9 and 12 months of infants’ life. Mothers’ and infants’ gaze and tactile behaviour, facial expressions of emotion, and dyadic expressions were continuously micro-analysed. Results showed that a) the developmental patterns of maternal and infant expressive behaviours reflected age-related variations in the way infants regulate their feelings and express their interests to their companions; b) maternal gaze and tactile behaviour, infant’s negativity, and participation in a shared activity, were correlated to the breastfeeding duration. Our observations may help health care professionals to support breastfeeding through the facilitation of mother-infant communication.

KEYWORDS:

• Breastfeeding
• intersubjectivity
• gaze behaviour
• facial expressions of emotion
• tactile behaviour

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the support of Assistant Professor N. Tsigilis for comments on the statistical analysis. We are deeply indebted to the infants and their families for offering their time, cooperation and patience to participate.

Data Availability statement

The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Only one infant with gestational age 36 weeks (birth weight 2260gr) was included because she was not admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and her health and development was typical. The infant breastfed with no complications for 13 months. Ιt is difficult to obtain data from comparable families with healthy infants for an extensive observational period (Keller & Zach, 2002).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Scholarships Foundation (ΙΚΥ) [MIS-5000432]. These data are part of the Ph.D. study of the first author (Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Greece) under the supervision of Professor Theano Kokkinaki. The research was co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund- ESF) through the Operational Programme «Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning» in the context of the project ‘Strengthening Human Resources Research Potential via Doctorate Research’ (MIS-5000432), implemented by the State Scholarships Foundation (ΙΚΥ), from December 2016 to December 2019.