Daily mother-infant skin-to-skin contact and maternal mental health and postpartum healing: a randomized controlled trial.

ABSTRACT: This randomized controlled trial examined the effects of a daily hour of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) during the first five postnatal weeks, compared to care-as-usual, on maternal depressive (primary outcome), anxiety, stress, fatigue, pain, and delivery-related post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Prenatal symptom severity and touch discomfort were examined as moderators. Mothers and full-term infants were randomly allocated to SSC or care-as-usual conditions and followed during the first postnatal year. For the total group (intention-to-treat analyses), care-as-usual mothers showed an increase of anxiety symptoms from week 2 to 12, while SSC mothers displayed a stability of anxiety symptoms. Also, care-as-usual mothers showed an initial decrease in fatigue followed by an in

SUBMITTER: Cooijmans KHM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9205929 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature