Initiation and duration of skin-to-skin contact for extremely and very preterm infants: A register study.

ABSTRACT

AIM: This study sought to describe how skin-to-skin contact between extremely and very preterm infants and their parents is practised in Swedish neonatal units. METHODS: Data from the Swedish Neonatal Quality Register from 2020 to 2021 were extracted to analyse initiation time and daily duration of skin-to-skin contact in different gestational ages and regions. RESULTS: Of the 1475 infants in the cohort, mean (range) gestational age was 28 weeks (22-31), and mean (range) birthweight was 1205 g (360-2810). For extremely preterm infants (<28 weeks), median (interquartile range) skin-to-skin contact initiation time was at 88 postnatal hours (48-156) and 5% had skin-to-skin contact on the first day. For very preterm infants (<32 weeks), the corresponding numbers were 14 h (4-36) and 34%. Median (interquartile range) daily skin-to-skin contact duration for the entire cohort during the first day, first three and seven days and the remaining hospital stay was 0 (0-0), 0.7 (0-2.7), 1.6 (0.4-3.6) and 4.4 (3.0-6.1) h, respectively. CONCLUSION: A minority of extremely and very preterm infants were exposed to skin-to-skin contact on the first postnatal day. Daily duration during the first week of life amounted to less than two hours. Initiation time and daily duration varied among gestational ages.