Research published today in the open access journal BMC
Pediatrics suggests that very preterm babies, born between 28
and 31 weeks, could benefit from skin-to-skin cuddling with
their mother before and during painful procedures such as a heel
lance. Celeste Johnston of McGill University, Montreal, Canada
and colleagues have already shown that skin-to-skin contact,
known as kangaroo mother care (KMC) helps babies born at 32 to
36 weeks to recover from pain. They hoped to determine whether
KMC could reduce pain and aid recovery in even younger preterm
babies born at 28 to 31 weeks. It was previously thought that
such young babies were not developed enough to benefit from
comfort strategies. They carried out a randomized crossover
trial to see whether such babies could bounce back from pain
following a heel lance blood test, which involves pricking the
baby’s heel to obtain a blood sample. The team asked mothers to
hold their babies for 15 minutes prior to and throughout a heel
lance procedure. On another occasi