בשל "הגנת זכויות יוצרים", מובא להלן קישור למאמר בלבד. לקריאתו בטקסט מלא, אנא פנה לספרייה הרפואית הזמינה לך.

Maternal‐neonate separation for human newborns has been the standard of care since the last century;

low birth weight and preterm infants are still routinely separated from their mothers.

With advanced technology, survival is good, but long‐term developmental outcomes are very poor for these especially vulnerable newborns.

The poor outcomes are similar to those described for adversity in childhood, ascribed to toxic stress.

Toxic stress is defined as the absence of the buffering protection of adult support.

Parental absence has been strictly enforced in neonatal care units for many reasons and could lead to toxic stress.

The understanding of toxic stress comes from discoveries about our genome and epigenetics, the microbiome, developmental neuroscience and the brain connectome, and life history theory.

This may explain the increasing incidence of developmental problems in childhood, and also Developmental Origins of Health and Disease.

Arguments are presented that maternal‐neonate separation is indeed a source of toxic stress, and some suggestions are offered toward a “zero separation” paradigm.