The history of the early relationship between mother and baby has been the subject of close attention throughout the development of psychology and medicine. When a newborn and defenseless child is born, it is most susceptible to viruses and infections. Scientists have been trying for many years to reduce the mortality rate of newborns and find a cause that can affect it (Agudelo et al., 2020). The problem that I want to consider in the article is related to the influence of skin-to-skin contact on the newborn child.
My clinical question is, “Is skin-to-skin contact of the infant with the mother a more secure way of ensuring neonatal mortality when compared to drying and wrapping.” The consequences of separating a newborn from their mother immediately after childbirth can be the release of a large number of stress hormones into the blood (Agudelo et al., 2020). Moreover, the excited state of the baby and problems with breastfeeding may cause sharp deterioration of health and decreased immunity (Safari et al., 2018). That is why this problem is important, and we should find an alternative way to improve the situation.
Therefore, I am looking for quantitative studies using the PICO format since using this format; we can compare the two approaches and choose the best one. Thus, in the research, P: newborns and their mothers, I: skin-to-skin contact, C: drying and wrapping, and O: reducing the risk of newborn mortality (Kloda et al., 2020). The experiment was conducted from February to May 2017 at the Hawler Maternity Hospital, Iraq (Safari et al., 2018). The experiment was conveyed on 108 women and their infants. Thus, a process of skin-to-skin communication with the mother after birth was practiced for 56 newborns. The rest of the newborns were immediately taken away from their mothers and subjected to postpartum manipulations.
In the first group, the babies behaved the same way: lying on a woman’s stomach in labor, they tried to attach themselves to her. The mothers’ reaction to this behavior was a sharp increase in the level of oxytocin. Oxytocin causes uterine contractions and reduces accelerating the onset of the postpartum recovery period (Safari et al., 2018). More than half of the babies from the other group did not demonstrate searching behavior and could not attach themselves to the breast for a long time.
In addition, the study of newborns in Nigeria and Bangladesh showed similar results. Nigeria and Bangladesh practically do not resort to the skin-to-skin method. Scientists have investigated the relationship between the skin-to-skin method and the early start of breastfeeding (Singh et al., 2017). That is why the scientists concluded that those children who used skin-to-skin contact got used to breastfeeding faster and were less susceptible to diseases.
The researchers concluded that physical contact significantly improves the condition of the newborn and the mother: the baby’s body temperature, blood glucose, heartbeat, and blood pressure. Moreover, the search reflex is stimulated: the baby laid out on the mother’s stomach begins to look for the breast and is applied to it after a while. In addition, premature babies have reduced oxygen demand, and other indicators of their general condition are stabilized (Safari et al., 2018).
References
Agudelo, S., Díaz, D., Maldonado, M. J., Acuña, E., Mainero, D., Pérez, O., Perez, L. & Molina, C. (2020). Effect of skin-to-skin contact at birth on early neonatal hospitalization. Early human development, 144. Web.
Kloda, L. A., Boruff, J. T., & Cavalcante, A. S. (2020). A comparison of patient, intervention, comparison, outcome (PICO) to a new, alternative clinical question framework for search skills, search results, and self-efficacy: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 108(2), 185. Web.
Safari, K., Saeed, A. A., Hasan, S. S., & Moghaddam-Banaem, L. (2018). The effect of mother and newborn early skin-to-skin contact on initiation of breastfeeding, newborn temperature and duration of third stage of labor. International breastfeeding journal, 13(1), 1-8. Web.
Singh, K., Khan, S. M., Carvajal–Aguirre, L., Brodish, P., Amouzou, A., & Moran, A. (2017). The importance of skin–to–skin contact for early initiation of breastfeeding in Nigeria and Bangladesh. Journal of global health, 7(2). Web.