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Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Emily Halevy | CWK Producer

If you’re a new mom or dad, you already know that holding and hugging your baby helps him or her feel happy and secure.  But research shows it does even more. It can actually reduce the pain a child feels during blood tests and other medical procedures. 

The Henderson twins, Alexandra and Abigail, were born 12 weeks premature.  As part of their daily routine,  the twins’ mom shares in “kangaroo care” -- 45 minutes a day of putting the twins’ bare skin right up against hers.

“We’re getting your room all ready. You know, you and your sister are sharing a room,” coos Laura Henderson, the twins’ mother.

“Newborns who are sick and who have lots of skin-to-skin contact get well quicker, gain weight more quickly, seem to have a more stable heart rate and respiratory rate, and often can leave the hospital sooner than an infant who doesn’t have skin-to-skin contact,” says Dr. Debby Pollack, M.D., pediatrician.

“It’s just a very comforting thing for me, I think, as well as for them. And as a mother, you’d like to hold your babies. I think it’s a very natural thing to want them next to your skin—next to your body, as close as you can get them,” says Henderson.

And, according to a study from McGill University in Montreal, when premature babies get a shot or have blood drawn, the babies who are held by their mothers get over the pain much faster than babies swaddled in a blanket.

 “I want you to put her in your arms and kind of like cuddle her,” explains the nurse to Henderson.

“Infants who have skin-to-skin contact during a heel lance for a blood draw would have less crying … and less facial expression that’s seen with pain,” says Pollack.
 
 “She gave that initial cry -- but then she seemed to calm down,” says Henderson, after one of the twins’ procedures.

“All parents are concerned with their infant’s pain. So if something this simple actually helps the parents feel better as well, and can help with infant pain, it’s an easy way to reduce pain in hospital and office blood draws,” says Pollack.

Tips for Parents

Research at McGill University further provides these results and tips, according to Newindpress.com:

• Researchers at McGill University, Montreal, Canada have shown that preterm babies benefit from a cuddle with their mother before and during painful procedures.
• Previously shown, skin-to-skin contact, known as kangaroo mother care (KMC) helps babies born at 32 to 36 weeks to recover from pain.
• Researchers asked mothers to hold their babies for 15 minutes prior to and throughout a heel lance procedure. The same babies were later simply swaddled in the incubator before and after the procedure.
• Researchers assessed the babies' pain based on the Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP), which takes into account facial expressions, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels.
• PIPP scores at 90 seconds after the lance procedure were much lower in the KMC babies than in those without skin-to-skin contact.
• The facial expression of pain was shown less than half the time in the babies treated with KMC.
• Babies receiving KMC also recovered from the pain within a couple of minutes, whereas the incubator babies were still suffering at more than three minutes. This delay could make all the difference to the health of a very preterm baby who needs almost constant incubator care.
• Researchers believe KMC can also have benefits for the mother whose parental role lessens while her baby is in intensive care.

References

• Newindpress.com
• Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
• McGill University

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