The Effect of Daily Skin-to-Skin Contact on Physiological and Behavioral Regulation in Full-Term Infants: Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Most research on skin-to-skin contact (SSC) focusses on preterm infants or SSC provided in the first hours after birth, while less is known about the effects of SSC in full-term infants and daily SSC practice. The aim of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) was to investigate the influence of a daily SSC intervention on physiological and behavioral stress regulation in fullterm infants. In total, 116 Dutch, healthy mothers and their infants participated in the study and SSC mothers were asked to provide their infants with at least one daily hour of uninterrupted SSC, for the first 5 postnatal weeks, beginning immediately after birth. Mothers in the control condition were not requested to provide SSC. All mothers filled in a daily logbook, in which they registered SSC. In week 5 postpartum, mothers and infants were visited at home and infant salivary cortisol levels were measured in response to a bathing session. Additionally, crying and fussing of the infant was observed and scored. A Repeated Measures Anova and a Mann-Whitney test were conducted. Results showed no significant difference between the SSC and the control condition regarding cortisol levels and crying and fussing. Also, there were no dose-response effects found for the duration of SSC in the SSC condition. In the current sample, full-term infants receiving daily SSC did not show reduced cortisol response and reduced crying and fussing compared to infants in the control condition. Future SSC research is needed to examine dose-response relations and other outcome variables in full-term infants.