With my first baby, I was all about attachment parenting–when he cried I picked him up (immediately), I breast fed on demand, we spent hours a day cuddling and he fell asleep on me often. So one of my biggest worries when my second son was taken to NICU less than an hour after birth was: How will life in an incubator, with limited human touch (and no hugs from mom), affect my child in the long run?

Obviously I was excited to hear the results of a new study published in Psychiatry Research. The University of Montreal study followed 1,212 children through adulthood and found that newborns who spent time in an incubator are two to three times less likely to be depressed when they grow up. The researchers’ original hypothesis, like my own, was that early mother-baby separation could result in heightened rates of clinical depression later in life.

Why were the results so much different than expected?

Researchers aren’t sure, but it could be that incubators are controlled environments where body temperature, brain oxygenation, sound and light are adjusted to maximize neuronal development. Or, maybe we just make up for lost time after our little ones are released from NICU.

Whatever the reason, this study can help take a little stress out of a highly emotional time for moms with babies in the NICU.

Tags: baby, depression, ICU, incubator, incubators, montreal, Nancy's Blog, newborns, NICU, psychiatry research

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