Communication of pain and anxiety between mothers and infants during routine immunization procedures.

Infants are a very vulnerable population who undergo numerous common, yet painful, medical procedures, such as immunizations. Infants use social referencing, a complex level of communication and learning, during novel situations (i.e. medical procedures) to establish how they should react in novel situations. If the infant's mother is fearful of needles she may inadvertently send these danger messages to her infant making the immunization process a more painful experience for the infant. It was found that neither maternal self-reported needle fear nor maternal fear behaviour influenced infants' pain expression during immunizations. Results, however, did indicate that immediately following the immunization males, 12-months of age, exhibited more guarded body movement than males 18-months of age. It was also found that females, 12-months of age, exhibited more guarded body movement than females 18-months of age prior to the immunization.