Maternal trade-off in treating high-risk children

Low birthweight and the infant's health status are expected to strongly inf luence the child's reproductive value and, thus, the maternal decisions on the amount and timing of investment. A total of 590 Hungarian primiparous m others giving birth in the late 1980s were recruited for the longitudinal s tudy. Mothers of high-risk infants shortened the duration of breast-feeding and interbirth intervals, compared to those with an infant of higher survi val prospects. The most powerful predictor of the length of the lactation p eriod was the infant's weight at birth, whereas birth spacing was significa ntly influenced by the health status of the older child. Socioeconomic stat us had a positive effect on maternal care as well, but it did not change th e basic pattern of diminishing maternal care as a function of the infants' low reproductive value. The combination of the above factors resulted in a cumulative effect on maternal investment of mothers with handicapped childr en of various degrees of risk. An attempt has been made to exclude alternat ive explanations and to discuss the proximate mechanisms of discriminative parental solicitude. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.