For premature infants, an incubator is usually their first stop after entering the world. Now, science may have found a better landing spot.
Immediate skin-to-skin contact between a premature newborn and a parent helps to develop the child’s social skills. That’s what researchers in Sweden determined recently after observing about 100 babies in a controlled study.
During the study, the babies were randomly assigned to either an incubator or immediate parental contact. The skin-to-skin contact lasted for six hours after birth. The study was one of the first to include fathers having skin-to-skin contact with newborns. Prior research focused on mothers’ interactions with premature infants.
Among other results, the study showed that immediate skin-to-skin contact is safe for babies. It also helps to stabilize a baby’s heart rate, breathing and temperature.
After four months, the social interactions between mothers and children were filmed and assessed. At the time of the assessments, the psychologists did not know if the babies were given parental contact or placed in incubators.
The infants who had immediate skin-to-skin contact showed better communication and social skills. On a five-point scale measuring those attributes, the incubator babies scored just above three. The infants who had skin-to-skin contact scored closer to four.
The researchers believe that initial closeness between parents and babies may help stimulate later interactions that boost development. It’s also what many parents want anyway: snuggle time with their new bundle of joy.