Skin-to-skin contact is the best start in life for your baby. It has been nine months in the womb and at birth, it needs to feel that protection and security that it had within you. This practice is key to establishing an early bond with the newborn and promoting the initiation of breastfeeding, in addition to other benefits such as improving vital signs, helping to regulate body temperature and reducing the response to pain.
Both in the case of natural childbirth and cesarean section, it is recommended to put the newborn in skin-to-skin contact with his mother at birth and whenever possible.
With the arrival of the Covid, many wondered if this practice could favor the spread of the newborn from infected mothers. But a study whose conclusions we have just learned confirms that skin-to-skin contact does not increase the risk of contagion of COVID-19 for babies.
The research, promoted by Harvard University and in which the Hospital Doctor Peset de València participates, was carried out between the months of May and September 2020 and collects responses from 300 mothers with coronavirus from 31 different countries.
The results have just been published in the journal ‘Breastfeeding Medicine’ and have the endorsement of the Spanish Ministry of Health.
The study found no increased risk of contagion among babies who performed skin-to-skin for an hour or more after birth, were breastfed within the first hour of life, and were allowed to stay close to the mother in the same room (rooming-in) during their stay in maternity, compared to babies separated from their mothers and who did not carry out these practices.
Furthermore, the rate of successful breastfeeding was 4 times lower among infants who were separated from their mothers, according to health sources.
Likewise, one of every 3 mothers with covid-19 participants in the study who suffered this separation (the separation occurred in 27.9%) could not resume breastfeeding despite her wishes and trying after being reunited with her baby.
The study shows that the separation due to Covid-19 was experienced by eight out of ten women (78%) with anguish and that six out of ten (58%) said they felt very distressed and stressed. This separation had an average duration of between 6 and 7 days.
“The COVID Mothers Study reinforces the evidence that skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding in the first hour, staying in the same room near the mother, and direct breastfeeding are safe practices for mothers infected by coronavirus,” affirms María Teresa Hernández , coordinator of the Lactation Unit of the Doctor Peset University Hospital and president of the international IHAN (Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative Network) and the only Spanish signatory of the ‘COVID Mothers Study’.
In fact, he adds, “our results show that separation is associated with harm to the baby and the mother and is unnecessary.”
When the pandemic began in March 2020, the recommendations were contradictory and in many maternity wards, infants and mothers with Covid-19 (or suspected infection) were separated.
“We hope that the results of this study and others that are being published will help to maintain the accompaniment and protect the practices of humanization and support for breastfeeding that is so important for perinatal health,” Hernández pointed out.
In Babies and more | Skin to skin is not an “absurd modernity”, it is very important for mother and baby
