Skin-to-Skin Contact
Skin-to-Skin Contact refers to the practice of laying the newborn baby on its mother's bare chest immediately after birth.
This practice is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), not only for healthy full-term infants, but also for preterm and low birth weight infants (<2.5 kg)1.
In Italy, the book "Standard Organizzativi per l'Assistenza Perinatale"2 promoted by the SIN (Italian Society of Neonatology) provides as a standard of care that every birth point guarantees skin-to-skin contact (SSC), both for physiological newborns and newborns in minimal care, and for newborns in intermediate care and newborns in intensive care.
Effects on infant and mother3
- Calms and relaxes both mother and baby;
- Regulates the baby's heart rate and breathing, helping it to better adapt to life outside the womb;
- Stimulates interest in breastfeeding;
- Regulates temperature;
- Allows colonisation of the baby's skin with the mother's friendly bacteria, thus protecting it from infection;
- Stimulates the release of hormones that support breastfeeding and motherhood.
Short-term benefits for parents and baby4
- Improved transition to extra-uterine life;
- Improvement of early physiological stabilisation in preterm infants;
- Increased breastfeeding rates;
- Improvement in growth;
- Improved sleep;
- Increased parental attention to their child's needs and signals;
- Increased parental empowerment and self-efficacy.
Long-term benefits for parents and baby4
- Increased breastfeeding rates beyond the neonatal stage;
- Improved parent-child bonding and mental health;
- Improved immunity, decreased re-hospitalisations;
- Reduction of prematurity-related morbidity in adulthood;
- Improved neurodevelopmental and social behavioural outcomes in early adulthood;
- Decreased parental stress;
- Improved maternal outcomes related to breastfeeding.
Rooming-in
Rooming-in refers to the practice of allowing the newborn baby to stay 24 hours a day in the same room as the mother for the entire duration of the hospital stay.
This practice is promoted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Italian Ministry of Health and is included among the ten fundamental steps for successful breastfeeding5.
In Italy, the book "Standard Organizzativi per l'Assistenza Perinatale"1 promoted by the SIN (Italian Society of Neonatology) provides as a standard of care that every birth point allows rooming-in for physiological newborns and in minimal assistance.
Benefits5
- It facilitates the creation of an emotional bond;
- It makes breastfeeding possible whenever the infant requires nourishment;
- It allows closer contact with the father and other family members;
- It reduces the risk of neonatal infections, both because the infant does not remain in the nursery where he or she is more exposed to bacteria and micro-organisms, and because mother-infant contact favours the colonisation of the infant's skin and gastrointestinal tract by maternal micro-organisms, which tend not to be pathogenic in nature and against which the antibodies contained in breast milk act;
- It reduces the time taken by staff to carry babies in and out of nursery rooms, allowing other tasks to be performed.
Objectives2
- Fostering the mother-infant, father-mother-infant relationship;
- Supporting the mother in independently caring for her baby to acquire manual skills and confidence in breastfeeding and nursing practices;
- Initiate the process of synchronisation of sleep-wake rhythms between child and mother;
- Accompanying the partner or other family member/friend designated by the mother in supporting the newborn's care.