Maternal Sensitivity to Infant Cues: The Effects of Learning Infant Massage
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.
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