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Aim The main aims of the study were to examine whether human neonates’ responses to communication disturbance modelled by the still-face paradigm were stable and whether their responses were affected by their previous experience with the still-face paradigm. Methods The still face procedure, as a laboratory model of interpersonal stress, was administered repeatedly, twice, to 84 neonates (0 to 4 day olds), with a delay of an average of 1.25 day. Results Frame-by-frame analysis of the frequency and duration of gaze, distressed face, crying, sleeping and sucking behaviours showed that the procedure was stressful to them both times, that is, the still face effect was stable after repeated administration and newborns consistently responded to such nonverbal violation of communication. They averted their gaze, showed distress and cried more during the still-face phase in both the first and the second administration. They also showed a carry-over effect in that they continued to avert their gaze and displayed increased distress and crying in the first reunion period, but their gaze behaviour changed with experience, in the second administration. While in the first administration the babies continued averting their gaze even after the stressful still-face phase was over, this carry-over effect disappeared in the second administration, and the babies significantly increased their gaze following the still-face phase. Conclusion After excluding explanations of fatigue, habituation and random effects, a self-other regulatory model is discussed as a possible explanation for this pattern.

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of duration of earlier breastfeeding on the duration of breastfeeding with subsequent births. Medical records of 327 women who had had at least two deliveries were analysed; 89 of these women had had three deliveries. The average duration of breastfeeding increased from 6.01 mo to 6.85 mo with the second baby, but did not increase significantly with the third. A significant negative correlation was found between duration of first breastfeeding and change of breastfeeding duration at the second breastfeeding. Mothers who breastfed their first child for 0-7 mo significantly increased the duration of breastfeeding with the second child, whereas mothers who breastfed their firstborn for 8 mo or longer significantly reduced breastfeeding with the second baby. Conclusion: Results support earlier studies showing that duration of breastfeeding of the second child is significantly related to previous breastfeeding experience. Results also suggest that previous breastfeeding experience may lead mothers to regulate duration of subsequent breastfeeding toward a level that is optimal for them. The results are interpreted with respect to societal changes in breastfeeding patterns, as well as the role of material learning in breastfeeding behaviour.

Since the 1970s, about 30 cases of partial or complete trisomy 17p have been presented in the literature. Partial trisomies of the short arm of chromosome 17 are somewhat more common, but complete trisomy is quite rare. Most of these cases were described in infants and newborns; and to our knowledge only 3 cases of trisomy 17p have been detected intrauterine. Phenotypic features of trisomy 17p in fetuses are intrauterine growth retardation, ventriculomegaly, cleft lip and cleft palate, micrognathia, horseshoe kidneys, single umbilical artery, and congenital heart defects. The sonographic and foetopathologic findings of a pregnancy trisomy 17p11.2—pter with the deletion of the terminal portion of the chromosome 6 due to paternal balanced translocation are described in this case report.

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