Initiation and extent of skin‐to‐skin care at two Swedish neonatal intensive care units. (11th December 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Blomqvist, Ylva Thernström; Ewald, Uwe; Gradin, Maria; Nyqvist, Kerstin Hedberg; Rubertsson, Christine
• Is Part Of: Acta pædiatrica. Volume 102:Number 1(2013:Jan.)
• Page Start: 22
• Page End: 28
• Publication Date: 2012-12-11
• Subjects: Pediatrics -- Periodicals; Pediatrics; 618.92
• DOI: 10.1111/apa.12056
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0803-5253

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en" id="apa12056-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="apa12056-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Aim</title> <p>To describe initiation and extent of parents' application of skin‐to‐skin care (SSC) with their preterm infants at two Swedish neonatal intensive care units.</p> </sec> <sec id="apa12056-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>The duration of SSC was recorded in 104 infants' medical charts during their hospital stay, and the parents answered a questionnaire.</p> </sec> <sec id="apa12056-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>Both parents were involved in the practice of SSC. Three infants experienced SSC directly after birth, 34 within 1 h, 85 within 24 h and the remaining 19 at 24–78 h postbirth. SSC commenced earlier (median age of 50 min) in infants whose first SSC was with their father instead of with their mother (median age of 649 min: p < 0.001). The earlier the SSC was initiated, the longer the infant was cared for skin‐to‐skin per day during his/her hospital stay (p < 0.001). The median daily duration of SSC was 403 min.</p> </sec> <sec id="apa12056-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusion</title> <p>Early initiation of SSC had positive impact on the extent of parents' application of SSC. Even though the infants in this study were cared for skin‐to‐skin to a high extent, there is a potential for extended use of SSC in this type of hospital setting for reducing separation between infants and parents.</p> </sec> </abstract>