Effects of skin-to-skin contact on full-term infants' stress reactivity and quality of mother-infant interactions.
Dev Psychobiol
; 64(7): e22308, 2022 11.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36282755
ABSTRACT
Skin-to-skin contact (SSC) between mothers and their infants has beneficial effects in both preterm and full-term infants. Underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. This randomized controlled trial assessed whether daily SSC in full-term mother-infant dyads (1) decreases infants' cortisol and behavioral reactivity to a mild naturalistic stressor, and (2) facilitates interaction quality between infants and mothers (i.e., improved maternal caregiving behavior and mother-infant adrenocortical synchrony). Pregnant Dutch women (N = 116) were recruited and randomly allocated to an SSC or care-as-usual condition. The SSC condition performed 1 h of SSC daily, from birth until postnatal week 5. In week 5, mothers bathed the infant (known mild stressor). Infant and maternal cortisol was sampled at baseline, 25 and 40 min after bathing, and infant and maternal behavior was rated. Results did not indicate effects of SSC on infant behavioral and cortisol reactivity to the bathing session. Similarly, no effect of SSC was found on maternal caregiving behavior and mother-infant adrenocortical synchrony. In conclusion, the findings provide no evidence that daily mother-infant SSC is associated with full-term infants' behavioral and adrenocortical stress reactivity or mother-infant interaction quality. Future studies should replicate these findings and unveil other potential mechanisms underlying beneficial effects of SSC.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Bases de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Método Madre-Canguro
Tipo de estudio:
Clinical_trials
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Prognostic_studies
Límite:
Child
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Female
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Humans
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Infant
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Newborn
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Pregnancy
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Dev Psychobiol
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Países Bajos