Initiation and extent of skin-to-skin care at two Swedish neonatal intensive care units

Aim: To describe initiation and extent of parents' application of skin-to-skin care (SSC) with their preterm infants at two Swedish neonatal intensive care units.

Methods: The duration of SSC was recorded in 104 infants' medical charts during their hospital stay, and the parents answered a questionnaire.

Results: Both parents were involved in the practice of SSC. Three infants experienced SSC directly after birth, 34 within 1 h, 85 within 24 h and the remaining 19 at 24-78 h postbirth. SSC commenced earlier (median age of 50 min) in infants whose first SSC was with their father instead of with their mother (median age of 649 min: p < 0.001). The earlier the SSC was initiated, the longer the infant was cared for skin-to-skin per day during his/her hospital stay (p < 0.001). The median daily duration of SSC was 403 min.

Conclusion: Early initiation of SSC had positive impact on the extent of parents' application of SSC. Even though the infants in this study were cared for skin-to-skin to a high extent, there is a potential for extended use of SSC in this type of hospital setting for reducing separation between infants and parents.