Daily skin-to-skin contact in full-term infants and breastfeeding: Secondary outcomes from a randomized controlled trial.

Abstract

This randomized controlled trial evaluated the effect of a 5-week daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) intervention between mothers and their full-term infants, compared with care-as-usual, on exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration during the first post-natal year. Healthy pregnant women (n\u2009=\u2009116) from a community sample were enrolled and randomly allocated to the SSC or care-as-usual condition. SSC mothers were requested to provide one daily hour of SSC for the first five post-natal weeks. Twelve months post-partum, mothers indicated the number of exclusive and continued breastfeeding months. Multiple regression analyses were conducted using intention-to-treat, per-protocol and exploratory dose-response frameworks. In intention-to-treat analyses, exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration was not different between groups (exclusive: 3.61\u2009±\u20091.99 vs. 3.16\u2009±\u20091.77\u2009months; adjusted mean difference 0.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.33 to 0.89; p\u2009=\u20090.36; continued: 7.98\u2009±\u20094.20 vs. 6.75\u2009±\u20094.06\u2009months; adjusted mean difference 0.81, 95% CI -0.46 to 2.08; p\u2009=\u20090.21). In per-protocol analyses, exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration was longer for SSC than care-as-usual dyads (exclusive: 4.89\u2009±\u20091.26 vs. 3.25\u2009±\u20091.80\u2009months; adjusted mean difference 1.28, 95% CI 0.31-2.24; p\u2009=\u20090.01; continued: 10.81\u2009±\u20091.97 vs. 6.98\u2009±\u20094.08\u2009months; adjusted mean difference 2.33, 95% CI 0.13-4.54; p\u2009=\u20090.04). Exploratory dose-response effects indicated that more SSC hours predicted longer exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration. This study demonstrates that for the total group, the 5-week daily SSC intervention did not extend exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration. However, for mothers performing a regular daily hour of SSC, this simple and accessible intervention may extend exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration by months. Future studies are required to confirm these promising findings. Trial registration: Netherlands Trial Register (NTR5697).