Neonatal facial and cry responses to invasive and non-invasive procedures
- 1 September 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wolters Kluwer Health in Pain
- Vol. 42 (3) , 295-305
- https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3959(90)91142-6
Abstract
Healthy full-term infants (mean age 2.2 h) received 3 procedures in counterbalanced order: intramuscular injection, application of triple dye to the umbilical stub, and rubbing thigh with alcohol. Significant effects of procedure were found for total face activity and latency to face movement. A cluster of facial actions comprised of brow bulging, eyes squeezed shut, deepening of the naso-labial furrow and open mouth was associated most frequently with the invasive procedure. Comparisons between the 2 non-invasive procedures showed more facial activity to thigh swabbing and least to application of triple dye to the umbilical cord. Acoustic analysis of cry showed statistically significant differences across procedures only for latency to cry and cry duration for the group as a whole. However, babies who cried to two procedures showed higher pitch and greater intensity to the injection. There were no significant differences in melody, dysphonation, or jitter. Methodological difficulties for investigators in this area were examined, including criteria for the selection of cries for analysis, and the logical and statistical challenges of contrasting cries induced by different conditions when some babies do not always cry. It was concluded that facial expression, in combination with short latency to onset of cry and long duration of first cry cycle typifies reaction to acute invasive procedures. ∗Correspondence to: Dr. Ruth V.E. Grunau, Department of Psychology, B.C. Children's Hospital, Vancouver B.C. V6H 3V4, Canada. Submitted December 1, 1989; revised March 21, 1990; accepted March 23, 1990. © Lippincott-Raven Publishers....This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
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