Premium
Initiation and extent of skin‐to‐skin care at two S wedish neonatal intensive care units
Author(s) -
Blomqvist Ylva Thernström,
Ewald Uwe,
Gradin Maria,
Nyqvist Kerstin Hedberg,
Rubertsson Christine
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/apa.12056
Subject(s) - medicine , pediatrics , intensive care , neonatal intensive care unit , intensive care medicine
Aim To describe initiation and extent of parents’ application of skin‐to‐skin care ( SSC ) with their preterm infants at two S wedish 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.