Effects of skin-to-skin holding on general movements of preterm infants

The study objective was to test the hypothesis that the effect of skin-to-s kin (STS) holding increases the ratio of rest to activity in low birth weig ht preterm infants. Ten infants with birthweight <2,000 grams were videotap ed before and after STS holding. Video recordings were analyzed to determin e the number of general movements. We found no statistically significant di fference between the percentage of general movements over the two periods. We conclude that the ratio of rest-activity before and after STS holding do es not change as measured by occurrence of general movements.