Giving birth prematurely can be an extremely stressful and worrying experience for women. However, a new study has found that this increased stress does not affect how mothers go on to parent their children.

According to UK researchers, previous studies have suggested that the stress associated with having a premature baby, such as having a child who needs to be in an incubator for a long time, could adversely affect mothers' parenting behaviour, leaving them less sensitive to the needs of their children.

The researchers decided to investigate this further. They analysed all studies that compared the interactions between mothers and their premature children and mothers and their full-term children during the first eight years of life. This involved almost 4,000 children and their mothers from 34 different studies.

They found that despite the stress associated with having a premature baby, the mothers of these children were just as sensitive and responsive in their interactions with their children as the mothers of full-term children.

"More than one in 10 children are born preterm in the world. These findings are reassuring that regardless of the initial shock and stress, mothers of preterm children can provide the same sensitive parenting. There is no evidence for the speculation that parents of preterm children, on average, are less good in their parenting," commented the researchers from the University of Warwick.

In fact, the study found that even the mothers of very premature children who had spent the most time in hospital were just as sensitive in how they parented as the mothers of full-term children.

The findings, which are published in the journal, Pediatrics, were consistent throughout Europe, North America and Australia.

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