Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants

Early skin-to-skin contact appears to have beneficial effects on breastfeeding outcomes.

A Cochrane review (abstract , review ) included 38 studies with a total of 3 472 participants (mother-infant dyads). There was statistically significant and positive effects of early skin-to-skin contact (SSC) on breastfeeding at one to four months postbirth (RR 1.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07 to 1.43; 14 trials, n=887) and breastfeeding duration (mean difference 64 days, 95% 37.96 to 89.50; 6 trials, n=264). SSC women were more likely to exclusively breast feed from hospital discharge to 1 month and from 6 weeks to 6 months (RR 1.30, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.49; 6 trials, n=711; I² = 44% and RR 1.50, 95% CI 1.18 to 1.90; 7 trials, n=640; I² = 62%, respectively).

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study quality (inadequate or unclear allocation concealment).

Ədəbiyyat

1. Moore ER, Anderson GC, Bergman N. Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2007 Jul 18;(3):CD003519 [Review content assessed as up-to-date: 17 December 2015] .