Early relationship environments: physiology of skin-to-skin contact for parents and their preterm infants

Skin-to-skin care involves the mother placing her diaper-clad infant upright between her breasts in direct skin contact. The practice has evolved worldwide to be an intervention strategy in neonatal intensive care units for premature infants and their mothers. Few adverse outcomes have been noted in thermoregulation, cardiovascular changes, or behavioral organization. Findings have been positively related to better infant physiologic and neurobehavioral outcomes, maternal breastfeeding success, and positive attachment relationships. The early, intimate, and physiologically stabilizing benefits of skin-to-skin care provide for a new conceptualization of the optimal environment for preterm infants in intensive care.