Benefits of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact: a systematic review

Introduction: Skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby after birth is recommended to strengthen breastfeeding and the emotional bond between mother and baby. However, there are many other consequences for the mother and baby that are unknown. We conducted a systematic review to assess this issue.Material & Methods: In this review study, PubMed, Scopus, Science direct, SID, Magiran, Iranmedex, Irandoc, Medlib, Google scholar databases were searched to find articles published from ۱۹۹۶ to ۲۰۲۳ using relevant keywords. The quality of articles was assessed by the STROBE checklist. From ۳۸۳ articles obtained from search engines, ۱۴۱ articles that achieved a score of≥۱۵.۵ were entered into the study. The full text of the selected articles was reviewed by two reviewers.Results: In this study, ۱۴۱ articles with a sample size of ۴۷۹,۴۰۴ were examined, of which ۱۳ studies were about the effect of skin contact on the vital signs of the baby, ۴ studies were about the weight of the baby, ۵۸ studies were about exclusive feeding and Neonatal hypoglycemia, ۱۲ studies on neonatal pain, ۳۰ studies on maternal health and ۲۴ studies on neonatal mortality.Conclusion: Skin-to-skin contact reduces depression and anxiety after childbirth. For the baby, it also has the benefits of reducing the cases of hypoglycemia, the cases of hospitalization of the baby in special care units, the duration of the baby's hospitalization, the amount of weight loss after birth, the pain of the baby during painful procedures, as well as the increase in the success rate of exclusive feeding and the improvement of physiological indicators.

کلیدواژه ها:

Kangaroo-Mother Care method ، Skin-to-skin ، Newborn ، Mother-infant skin-to-skin contact ، Systematic review