Skin-to-skin contact and its effect on mothers' postpartum psychological distress and their full-term neonate in Egypt

Design: A randomized controlled study was conducted on 400 mothers, who were divided into two groups: 200 mothers who applied skin-to-skin infant care (SSC) for at least 1 h daily for 12 weeks and 200 mothers who performed the usual mother-infant care. The mothers were recruited from the Obstetric Department of Al-Zahraa University Hospital in Cairo, Egypt. The enrolled mothers' infants were assessed for body weight. Sleep hours and frequency of breast milk feeding were evaluated by the mother during the day. All of the mothers who took part in the study were assessed for postoperative pain, wound healing, postpartum depression, anxiety, sleep quality and newborn maternal bonding.

Results: There was a significant increase in frequencies of breastfeeding and the body weight at 12 weeks' postnatal age and also an increase in sleep hours in the infants who had SSC. The mothers who performed SSC had good sleep quality in comparison with those who performed the usual infant care; in addition, they had less postoperative pain intensity and proper wound healing apart from better maternal-infant bond, decreased anxiety and decreased depression frequency.

Conclusion: SSC was associated with better infant breastfeeding, increased sleep hours in infants and less postpartum psychological burden in mothers.