Infant-directed behavior of rhesus monkeys during their first pregnancy and parturition.

To determine whether pregnancy influences the response of rhesus monkeys towards infants, 11 females were observed during 15-min exposures to a 1- to 15-day-old infant at 1- to 2-week intervals throughout pregnancy. No evidence was found for increasing willingness to contact infants as pregnancy progressed. The parturition of 5 of these females was observed, which included 1 live breech birth. These primiparae all established ventral contact with their infants at birth, though most of them appeared to passively allow the infant to initiate contact while their own attention was directed at licking the birth fluids.