Barriers and enablers to skin-to-skin contact at birth in healthy neonates - a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Skin to skin contact (SSC) at birth is the standard of care for newborns without risk factors. However, implementation of SSC at birth has been far from optimal. A qualitative study was undertaken to determine the barriers, enablers and potential solutions to implementation of SSC at birth in healthy newborn infants in a level III neonatal-care facility in Bangalore, India. METHODS: Consultants and residents/postgraduates (PG) from the departments of Obstetrics (n = 19) and Pediatrics (n = 14) and nurses (n = 8) in the labor room (LR) participated in the study. In depth interviews (IDI) and focus group discussions (FGD) were carried out with an interview guide and a moderators' guide containing inbuilt probes. Subjects of FGD were homogenous. All IDI and FGD were audio-taped, transcribed and analyzed using N VIVO version 9 (using free and tree nodes). Two authors separately coded the transcripts. Major and minor themes were identified. Rigor was ensured by triangulation and theoretical saturation. Informed consent and ethical approval was obtained. RESULTS: All subjects were aware of SSC at birth, some of its benefits and had practiced SSC. The major barriers identified were lack of personnel (nurses), time constraint, difficulty in deciding on eligibility for SSC, safety concerns, interference with clinical routines, and interdepartmental issues. Recall of an adverse event during SSC was also a major barrier. Furthermore, we found that most participants considered 1 h as impractical; and promoted 5-15 min SSC. Minor themes were gender bias of the newborn and cultural practices. The participants offered solutions such as assigning a helper exclusively for SSC, allowing a family member into the LR, continuing SSC after initial routines, antenatal counselling, constant reminders in the form of periodic sessions with audiovisual aids or posters in the obstetrics ward, training of new nurses and PG, and inclusion of SSC in medical and nursing curriculum. CONCLUSIONS: The major barriers to SSC at birth are lack of personnel, time constraint and safety concerns. Training, designated health personnel for SSC and teamwork are the key interventions likely to improve SSC at birth.

PAIN--perception and assessment of painful procedures in the NICU.

This prospective cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the frequency of procedural pain among 101 neonates in the first 14 days of admission to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in South India and to study the perception of health-care professionals (HCP) about newborn procedural pain. The total number of painful procedures was 8.09 ± 5.53 per baby per day and 68.32 ± 64.78 per baby during hospital stay. The most common procedure was heel prick (30%). The HCP were administered a questionnaire to assess their perception of pain for various procedures. Procedures were perceived as more painful by nurses than by doctors. Chest tube placements and lumbar puncture were considered most painful. This study shows that the neonates in the NICU in developing countries experience many painful procedures. The awareness about this intensity of pain should provide a valuable tool in formulating pain-reduction protocols for management in low resource settings.