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Infants' earliest sleep/wake organization differs as a function of delivery mode
Author(s) -
Freudigman Kimberly A.,
Thoman Evelyn B.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-2302(199805)32:4<293::aid-dev4>3.0.co;2-i
Subject(s) - wakefulness , medicine , sleep (system call) , vaginal delivery , circadian rhythm , anesthesia , slow wave sleep , polysomnography , pregnancy , electroencephalography , biology , apnea , psychiatry , computer science , genetics , operating system
The sleep/wake states of newborn infants were investigated as a function of vaginal and C‐section delivery. The subjects were 51 normal full‐term infants: 26 vaginally delivered, 12 delivered by emergency C‐section, and 13 delivered by elective C‐section. Their sleep states and wakefulness were continuously recorded from the time of birth throughout their stay in the hospital, that is, the first 2 postnatal days for the vaginally delivered infants and 5 days for the C‐section infants. Sleep was recorded using the automated Motility Monitoring System, which permits 24‐hr recordings without instrumentation of the subject. During the 1st postnatal day, both C‐section groups showed state patterns that differed significantly from those of the vaginally delivered infants. Analyses for single states indicated that both C‐section groups had significantly less active sleep, and the elective group had more wake and more sleep–wake transition than the vaginal group. The two C‐section groups did not differ significantly on any measure. Only the vaginally delivered infants showed significant day/night differences during the first 2 days, with more wakefulness, shorter mean sleep periods and shorter longest‐sleep periods during the daytime on both days. The results of this study indicate that the earliest postnatal sleep patterns differ and the diurnal sleep rhythm is disrupted as a result of surgical delivery. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 32: 293–303, 1998