Studies that have focused on describing the types of stimulation experienced by
infants in the NICU environment have generally concluded that preterm infants
receive high levels of stimulation in the NICU, but that much of this stimulation
is aversive, not contingent on the infants’ cues and responses, and involves handling
associated with medical and nursing procedures.25-27 Preterm infants may be handled
as much as 3.5 hours per day28 or 5% to 38% of observation times.12 Symon and
Cunningham used time-lapsed video recordings of 12 preterm infants in an NICU
on the first and third days postbirth.28 The number of handling episodes ranged
from 28 to 71, and ventilated infants received more handling than did infants
who were not on ventilators. Contrary to the perceptions of nurses caring for these
infants, there was no correlation between the infants’ gestational ages (GAs) and
their duration of handling.