The Impact of Holding on Stress and Bonding in Mother-Infant Pairs During Therapeutic Hypothermia

This research is being done to try to improve the experience of mothers and babies during therapeutic hypothermia. Currently, mothers are not able to hold their baby during hypothermia treatment. Mothers have reported that not being able to hold their baby during this time is stressful. Additionally, it is known that holding has many benefits for mothers' and babies' psychological and physical health. Therapeutic hypothermia is the standard of care. The experimental interventions of this study are to have mothers hold their babies during this treatment, collect saliva samples from mothers and babies, and test the saliva samples for the hormones cortisol and oxytocin. The investigators will test saliva of infants and their mothers before and after holding. The investigators hope to demonstrate decreased cortisol, a marker for stress, and increased oxytocin, a marker for bonding, in infants and mothers while they are held during therapeutic hypothermia.