Postpartum factors related to mother's attraction to newborn infant odors.

Hedonic responses to a variety of infant (general body, urine, and feces) and noninfant (lotion, cheese, and spice) odorants were compared in four groups of subjects: new mothers, mothers a 1-month postpartum, and female and male nonparents. Using standard scaling procedures, subjects rated each of the odorants twice on a scale from extremely unpleasant (-20.5) to extremely pleasant (+20.5). In addition, all subjects completed a set of attitude questionnaires, and mothers also answered a childbirth questionnaire and were observed while feeding their infants.