Comparison of skin-to-skin contact with standard contact in low-birth-weight infants who are breast-fed
J. A. Bier, A. E. Ferguson, Y. Morales, J. A. Liebling, D. Archer, W. Oh and B. R. Vohr
Brown University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, USA.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of maternal-infant skin-to-skin contact
(SSC) vs standard contact (SC) on low-birth-weight infants' physiological
profile, maternal milk production, and duration of breast-feeding. DESIGN:
Prospective, randomized, interventional study with cohort followed up for 6
months after discharge from the hospital. SETTING: Special care nursery
with follow-up telephone calls after discharge from the hospital. PATIENTS:
Fifty infants, with birth weights less than 1500 g and whose mothers
planned to breast-feed, randomized to 2 groups: SSC (experimental) and SC
(control). INTERVENTION: In the SSC group, infants were clothed in diaper
and held upright between mothers' breasts; both mother and infant were
covered with a blanket. In the SC group, infants were clothed, wrapped in
blankets, and held cradled in mother's arms. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Infant
physiological data, ie, oxygen saturation, heart rate, respiratory rate,
and axillary temperature; maternal milk production; and duration of
breast-feeding. RESULTS: Oxygen saturation was higher during SSC than
during SC (P < .001); 11% of the oxygen saturation recordings during SSC
vs 24% during SC indicated the values less than 90% (P < .001). A more
stable milk production was noted in the SSC group. No differences were
noted in infant temperature, heart rate, or respiratory rate. Ninety
percent of mothers in the SSC group vs 61% in the SC group continued
breast-feeding for the duration of the infants' hospitalization (P <
.05), and 50% in the SSC group vs 11% in the SC continued breast-feeding
through 1 month after discharge (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: During SSC with
their mothers, low-birth-weight infants maintain a higher oxygen saturation
and are less likely to have desaturation to less than 90% oxygen than are
infants exposed to SC. Mothers in the SSC group are more likely to continue
breast-feeding until 1 month after discharge.
