A major advance in our understanding of early mother-child interaction was made by Klaus and Kennell when they reported that early contact between a mother and her newborn infant promoted bonding and even led to improved development at 1 year of age. In spite of questions concerning their results, others are also reporting positive effects of home support by relatively untrained women. In this issue of Pediatrics, Siegel and colleagues1 summarize these studies and report on a carefully controlled study which was designed to test the power of continuing postpartum home visiting and early bonding. They show that at 4 months of age there were significant differences in mother-child interaction between those who had early and sustained hospital contact followed by home support compared to those who did not.
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August 1980
