Maternal Sensitivity to Infant Cues: The Effects of Learning Infant Massage
Graduation Date
2005
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Department
Nursing
Department or Program Chair
Barbara Ganley, PhD
Thesis Advisor
Luanne Linnard-Palmer, EdD, RN
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to determine if the participation in an infant massage class would improve a first mother’s ability to recognize her infant’s communication cues. A quasi-experimental research design was utilized. A convenience sample of first time mothers aged 20 to 45 years with infants aged 2 to 6 months was screened. Data were analyzed using SPSS Graduate Pack, Version 12.0 for Windows. A total of 8 mothers and infants were screened. The mothers’ ability to recognize their infants communication cues was improved by 3% from the pre-test to post-test. There was improvement of the mothers’ ability to recognize their infants’ communication cues after participating in the four week infant massage class. Additional exploration of the study with a larger sample would be needed to generalize the results to a larger population.