The Northern Babies Longitudinal Study

"The Newborn Behavioral Observation (NBO) is a flexible parental guidance methodology which takes between 20 and 40 minutes to administer. It consists of 18 neurobehavioral observations which give a profile of the infant´s behavioral repertoire along the dimensions: attentional-interactional, autonomic, motor and state organization.~The intervention group will receive 3 NBO consultations: 1) Routine care plus the NBO at the hospital within two days post-delivery; 2) Routine home visit plus the NBO by a public health nurse when the infant is 7-10 days old; and 3) NBO at the well-baby clinic when the infant is about 4 weeks old."

The control group will receive routine care. Between 7 and 10 days after birth a public health nurse routinely visits the family at home. Six weeks after birth, the mother and the infant visit the well-baby clinic