Skin-to-skin cuddling with a parent has lasting cognitive benefits for premature babies, according to a new Stanford Medicine study. Preemies who received more skin-to-skin contact, also known as kangaroo care, while hospitalized as newborns were less likely to be developmentally delayed at 1 year of age, the study found.
Stanford Medicine Aug 8 2024
"It didn't matter if the baby was from a high- or low-income family; the effects we found were the same. And it didn't matter if the baby was sicker or less sick -; both responded to this treatment," Travis said. "Our finding legitimizes skin-to-skin care as a vital intervention in the neonatal intensive care unit to support our goal of getting that child out of the hospital, able to learn and develop," Scala said.
The study included 181 preemies who did not have genetic or congenital conditions known to affect neurodevelopment and who had received follow-up evaluations after they left the NICU. All very premature babies are eligible for care through California's High Risk Infant Follow-Up program until age 3. The program provides developmental testing and connects families to appropriate therapists if their children have developmental delays.
The infants in the study were born, on average, at about 28 weeks' gestation, or about 12 weeks before their due dates. They stayed in the hospital for an average of about two and a half months. How does it work? Although the study was not set up to explore how skin-to-skin care benefits babies' brains, the researchers have some educated guesses.
Baby Children Frequency Hearing Hospital Intensive Care Medical School Medicine Neonatal Intensive Care Pediatrics Research Womb
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Skin-to-skin 'kangaroo care' found to boost neurodevelopment in preemiesSkin-to-skin cuddling with a parent has lasting cognitive benefits for premature babies, according to a new Stanford Medicine study. Preemies who received more skin-to-skin contact, also known as kangaroo care, while hospitalized as newborns were less likely to be developmentally delayed at 1 year of age, the study found.
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