The Association between Prematurity, Antibiotic Consumption, and Mother-Infant Attachment in the First Year of Life

Antibiotics have individual and public-health drawbacks. Nevertheless, mother-infant attachment quality and maternal sensitivity are associated with antibiotic use. Ambivalent-attached infants are more likely to consume antibiotics than other infants. Conceivably, the emotional over-externalization of ambivalent-attached infants and maternal anxiety when infants are ill raise concerns in healthcare professionals, leading to antibiotic over-prescriptions. However, because infants prematurely born, particularly those with less than 32 weeks of gestation, are under more accurate health vigilance, the impact of infant and maternal behavior on antibiotic prescription may vanish in this sample. To test this hypothesis, we performed a longitudinal study to compare antibiotic use and the quality of mother-infant attachment in three groups: 86 infants born at full-term, 44 moderate-to-late preterm infants (32–36 gestation weeks), and 58 very-to-extreme preterm infants (<32 gestation weeks). Infants’ attachment was observed with the Ainsworth Strange Situation’s experimental paradigm at 12 months of corrected age. Findings indicate that infant attachment strategy is associated with antibiotics uptake, but results vary across samples. The proportion of infants that used antibiotics is highest among ambivalent-attached infants in the full-term sample but highest among avoidant-attached infants in the very-to-extreme premature sample. Moreover, higher infant gestational age and lower maternal sensitivity determine higher antibiotic use.