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 Women who had skin-to-skin contact with their naked babies right
after delivery were more likely to breastfeed longer and be
breastfeeding months later than women who didn't have their babies
placed on their skin right away, the researchers found.
"The more you can do to place the mother and baby together and
disturb them as little possible during that first hour, the better
off they’ll be," said lead author Elizabeth Moore, of the School of
Nursing at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Moore and her colleagues write in the Cochrane Library November 25th
that babies are often separated from their mothers at birth. The new
review looked at whether placing naked babies on their mother's bare
chest improved breastfeeding and other health outcomes.
The review was coordinated by the Cochrane Collaboration, an
international organization that evaluates and reviews medical
research.
The researchers looked through medical literature and found 46
randomized controlled trials to include in their review. The trials
included 3,850 women and their newborns from 21 countries. All
babies were healthy and most were born at term.
"We compared those trials to usual care, and usual care was very
different depending on the trial," said Moore. Trials from the 1970s
may have separated mothers from their babies for hours. In more
modern trials, babies might be swaddled in a blanket before being
handed to the mother.
Compared to babies and mothers who received usual care, those who
received skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth were about 24
percent more likely to still be breastfeeding one to four months
later.
Infants who received skin-to-skin care were also 32 percent more
likely to successfully breastfeed on their first try.
There was also evidence that women who got skin-to-skin contact
breastfed longer and were more likely to exclusively breastfeed
after leaving the hospital.
Evidence also suggested babies did better after receiving
skin-to-skin contact after birth. They had higher scores on a
measure evaluating their heart and lung function, had higher blood
sugar levels and had a similar body temperature to their swaddled
counterparts.
"It’s just something that if at all possible should happen," Moore
told Reuters Health.
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Skin-to-skin contact should begin as soon as possible and last for
at least 60 minutes, she said. The hour will give babies time to
recover from the birthing experience, find the mother's nipple and
latch on.
"It’s not something you can do in just 15 minutes," she said.
Moore said more research is needed on skin-to-skin contact after
cesarean births and among babies born near full term.
"I think skin-to-skin care or contact is a no-cost intervention that
improves outcomes for mothers and babies," said Jeannette Crenshaw,
of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing in
Lubbock.
Crenshaw, who is presently involved in a study of skin-to-skin
contact after cesarean sections, said the current findings confirm
the results of earlier, less rigorous studies that showed similar
benefits.
"We need to adjust our processes, normal routines and make system
changes to make the best practice available to mothers and babies,"
said Crenshaw.
Moore said receiving skin-to-skin contact is often dependent on
doctors being comfortable with the practice.
"I would recommend that a woman make sure she adds skin-to-skin to
her birth plan," she said. "I think it’s a really good thing for a
woman to put together a birth plan before she heads to the hospital
and show it to her physicians or midwife."
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