Skin-to-skin: Good for Moms, Good for Newborns
October 24, 2007 by Barbara Behrmann | one question or comment
credits: iStockphoto
A recent systematic review of 30 studies involving nearly 2000 participants concluded that skin-to-skin contact in the early postnatal period has lots of benefits not even counting how good it feels!
The review found that babies kept skin-to-skin experienced more interaction with their moms, stayed warmer, and cried less. They were also more likely to be breastfed and to do so over a longer period of time. Late preterm babies also had better cardio-respiratory stability.
The findings dispute contemporary western practices of separating moms and babies after the birth, dressing babies, and placing them in warmers. Such hospital routines cause significant disruptions to mother and baby with harmful effects. But the gentle practice of early skin-to-skin contact was associated with no harmful affects at all.
The benefits of immediate mother-baby kangaroo care, or skin-to-skin contact, were corroborated by a pilot study reported in a November 2007 article (http://tinyurl.com/2k7qzg) in MCN: American Journal of Maternal-Child Nursing. Researchers found that newborns’ temperatures and blood glucose levels stabilized during birth kangaroo care. Delivery room staff stated they observed newborns crawling to and latching on and breastfeeding by most of these infants. In addition to benefits for newborns, nursed found that birth kangaroo care did not add to their workload, and physicians mentioned that immediate birth kangarooing distracted new mothers from any perineal repair. Since the completion of the pilot project, birth kangaroo care is encouraged and supported by staff for any interested new mothers.