Effects of the Odour of the Very Preterm Infant on Maternal Psychobiology

At birth, the study of interactions, particularly sensory interactions between a mother and her child, allows us to better understand the process of attachment. The sensory signals within the mother-infant dyad will lead to behavioural and metabolic adaptations in both individuals. Currently, the conditions of reception of a very premature newborn in the neonatal intensive care unit of the CHU of Nice lead to a separation between mother and child, with a reduction in sensory interactions.

The immediate and long-term consequences of this "sensory rupture" are widely documented in the child, but little studied in the mother.

The hypothesis at the origin of this work is that olfactory stimulations emanating from the newborn would allow a perceptive continuity between the newborn and his mother. In the pathological situation of the birth of a premature child, these stimulations would lead to neurobiological and behavioural modifications in the mother and would play a role in the attachment process.