In hospitals in the 1970s there was considerable variation in the nature of hospital environments experienced by newborns and their parents. The effects of such experiences are of great interest to researchers concerned with infant development and parent-child relationships, to clinicians involved in the care of newborns and parents, and to parents. Originally published in 1981, Newborns and Parents deals with an analysis of the current state of knowledge regarding the outcomes of such experiences at the time, and with future directions for the study of these effects.

The environmental experiences discussed in this book are grouped into two categories: newborn sensory stimulation by equipment or hospital personnel, and parent-infant contact. The first category includes investigations of several aspects of sensory stimulation, with most of the reported efforts dealing with motion, contact, and auditory stimulation. Studies in the second category focus on mothers and newborns, and relate primarily to mother–infant bonding and mother–newborn separation.