The mother-baby cohabitation in prison has been defended by primary importance that exerts
on the affective attachment in the dyad. Maternal-infant interaction has been largely related to
child survival. One way to analyze mother-infant interaction is to focus maternal
responsiveness. The present study proposes to analyze the interactions between mother-baby
during bathing and breastfeeding situations, based on maternal responsiveness, in the context
of jail. Five dyads participated in the study. The mothers were between 20 and 42 years old
and have been arrested for a crime of trafficking and/or homicide. Infants, four of them
female and one male, were aged between one and six months. Data on the characterization of
dyad were collected through medical records and interviews. Regarding the observational
data, these came from filming. Subsequently, these data were analyzed from two protocols:
Parental and Child Behavior Analysis Protocol and Protocol of Responsive and
Nonresponsive Sequences. The data of medical record and interviews gave rise to
micronarratives the life history of dyads. In relation to the observational data, statistics were
generated to describe them, as well as representations through graphs. Indices for maternal
responsiveness and nonresponsiveness were calculated from the means obtained for each type
of sequence, in both situations. It was observed that bathing proved to be a favorable situation
for interactive changes in the dyad. Finally, the interaction in the dyads mainly involved the
look and speak behavior, in maternal perspective. Adopting infant behavior as a reference, it
was observed that the behaviors involved in sequences responsive were the look towards the
mother, her face or part of the body. During breastfeeding, a higher frequency of
nonresponsive sequences was recorded.
|
