You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In pursuing studies on the effects of obstetrical drugs upon the newborn (Aleksandrowicz, 1974), we administered the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale to infants at the age of 3 days. This scale (Brazelton, 1973) measures the capacities of neonates to adapt to the extrauterine environment, interact with caretakers, and manage their own adverse reactions to the discomforts of life outside the mother's body. In addition to a survey of the neonates' reflex responses, the scale measures, along 9-point continua, the sleeping infant's ability to habituate to auditory, visual, and tactile stimuli (a prerequisite for and an early manifestation of the ability to learn); responsiveness in the alert state to visual and auditory stimuli, both animate and inanimate; motor organization, irritability, and activity levels; the capacity of the infant to console itself when upset, and to be comforted by an examiner; and success in those activities that help ensure an infant's survival—that is, sucking, molding its body to one who holds it, responding to the human face and voice, and being generally attractive.
The scale has come to be widely used as an instrument for