Her heart is in the right place: An investigation of the 'heartbeat hypothesis' as an explanation of the left side cradling preference in a mother with dextrocardia

A majority of mothers, whether right- or left-handed, exhibit a preference to hold their babies to the left of the body midline. One of the earliest e xplanations for this finding proposed that babies were being held close to the mother's heart [Salk, L. (1960). World Mental Health, 12, 168-175]. Sal k suggested that the foetus becomes imprinted on the sound of the maternal heartbeat in utero. This paper reports a left holding preference in a mothe r who has the heart positioned on the right rather than the normal left sid e of the body. Salk's 'heartbeat hypothesis' is not supported by the holdin g preference of the dextrocardiac mother, nor by the detailed patterns of h olding in the control group, (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.