Mother-Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact: Short- and Long-Term Effects for Mothers and Their Children Born Full-Term.

Ann E Bigelow,Michelle Power

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01921

Abstract

This brief report reviews findings from a longitudinal study of skin-to-skin contact (SSC) with mothers and full-term infants and a follow-up study of these dyads when the children were 9 years. Findings infer the positive influence of SSC on mother–child interactions in infancy and into children’s middle childhood. Mothers and infants in SSC and control groups were seen when infants were 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months. SSC group mothers reported fewer depressive symptoms in infants’ early weeks and had a greater reduction in salivary cortisol, a physiological stress indicator, in infants’ first month (Bigelow et al., 2012). SSC group mothers who initially chose to breastfeed continued to breastfeed their infants throughout the 3 months, whereas breastfeeding mothers in the control group declined over the visits (Bigelow et al., 2014). When engaged in the Still Face Task with their mothers, SSC group infants showed the still face effect with their affect at 1 month, a month before the control group infants did so (Bigelow and Power, 2012). At 3 months, SSC group infants were social bidding to their mothers during the still face phase. When the children were 9 years, the mother–child dyads engaged in conversations about the children’s remembered emotional events (Bigelow et al., 2018). Mother–child dyads who had been in the SSC group showed more engagement and reciprocity in the conversations than mother–child dyads who had been in the control group. Oxytocin, which is induced by SSC, is hypothesized to be an underlying factor that helped the mother–infant relationship have a positive trajectory with long-term benefits.

Highlights

This brief report reviews findings from one of the few mother–infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) studies involving full-term infants that follows mother–infant dyads beyond the immediate post-birth period (Bigelow and Power, 2012; Bigelow et al, 2012, 2014)
SSC group mothers provided slightly less SSC than the 6 h requested in the infants’ first week but more than the 2 h requested in weeks 2 through 4, whereas control group mothers provided minimal SSC throughout the infants’ first month
Difference scores showed that SSC group mothers had a greater reduction in salivary cortisol than control group mothers, F(1, 75) = 4.172, p = 0.045 (Bigelow et al, 2012)

Summary

Introduction

This brief report reviews findings from one of the few mother–infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) studies involving full-term infants that follows mother–infant dyads beyond the immediate post-birth period (Bigelow and Power, 2012; Bigelow et al, 2012, 2014). When the children were 9 years, these dyads participated in the only long-term SSC follow-up study with children born full-term (Bigelow et al, 2018). Oxytocin, which is released in SSC, is hypothesized to mediate the effects associated with SSC in infancy and beyond. Skin-to-Skin-Contact’s Short- and Long-Term Effects INFANCY STUDY. SSC stimulates oxytocin release in mother and infant (Uvnäs-Moberg et al, 2015). Previous studies show that newborns, whether premature or full-term, who have SSC with their mothers have better and more stable physiological functioning than newborns who do not have SSC. Infants who have SSC sleep better (Messmer et al, 1997; Feldman and Eidelman, 2003), cry less (Christensson et al, 1992; Michelsson et al, 1996), and have less pain reaction to routine hospital procedures (Gray et al, 2000; Cong et al, 2012)

Methods

Results

Conclusion