Skin-to-skin has proven to be a beneficial practice for babies from the moment they are born. Being in direct contact with their caregiver reassures and comforts them, being especially important in premature babies or those born with low birth weight, who recover faster thanks to the Kangaroo Method.
A new study led by researchers from University College London (UCL) and the University of York, in Canada, has analyzed the brain response to pain in newborn babies when performing the heel test, for which it is necessary to give a prick to draw a blood sample.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Lorenzo Fabrizi, professor of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology at the UCL, explains that they have found that, “when a baby is held by its parents, with skin-to-skin contact, high-level brain processing in pain response is somewhat muffled . The baby’s brain also uses a different pathway to process its response to pain. “
On the other hand, when clothes are involved, without being directly skin-to-skin contact, there was more activity in the brain of newborn babies.
Attenuated brain response
Researchers analyzed the pain response of 27 newborn babies between 0 and 96 days old who were born prematurely or full-term while undergoing the heel test.
They recorded the babies’ brain activity using electrodes placed on the scalp while they underwent the heel stick, and divided the babies into three groups: those who were alone in the crib or in an incubator, those held by their mothers while they dressed. clothing and those held by their mothers with skin-to-skin contact.
The infants’ initial brain responses to pain were found to be the same in all three groups. However, the researchers found that the last waves of brain activity were affected whether the baby was skin-to-skin or wearing clothes.
” The response was attenuated if there was contact with their mother’s skin , suggesting that parental contact affects high-level processing of the brain,” said joint lead author Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell, from the department of psychology. from York University in Canada.
“The pain may be the same, but the way the baby’s brain processes and reacts to that pain depends on its contact with a parent . Our findings support the idea that holding a newborn baby against the skin is important for its development, “he added.
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