Le sourire du nouveau-né sous le regard du parent

Abstract

ObjectiveFrom the first hours after birth and from a morphological standpoint, newborns smile in a way similar to older children. Nevertheless, the newborn's smile has long been described as endogenous, thus implicitly assigning no social value to it. The objective of this exploratory study is to question the social nature of the newborn's smile during an interactive situation. Although this is a favorable context, it has seldom been explored inside the literature. Our hypothesis is that the social nature of the newborn's smile is linked to the exchange dynamic, where the parent reacts to the smile and gives meaning to it. MethodFifteen mother/2 to 4-days-old newborn dyads and 21 father/1 to 7-days-old newborn dyads were video-recorded at the maternity. Video coding was carried out frame by frame using the software The Observer XT. Transcription of parental speech was done using the software Audacity. ResultsOur results go hand in hand with our initial hypothesis. First of all, the parent smiles or continues to smile following the newborn's smile. Moreover, the parent's successive verbalizations evoke the newborn's smile in an unambiguous manner. In addition, the way that smile is described, one time out of three, suggests it is perceived as ‘directed’. ConclusionRather than lying on its voluntary or involuntary nature, the social dimension of the newborn's smile lies on the intimate feeling experienced by the partner, during the interaction, that the smile is directed towards him or her.