Skin-to-skin contact is analgesic in healthy newborns

Objectives. To determine whether skin-to-skin contact between mothers and t heir newborns will reduce the pain experienced by the infant during heel la nce. Design. A prospective, randomized, controlled trial. Setting. Boston Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts. Participants. A total of 30 newborn infants were studied. Interventions. Infants were assigned randomly to either being held by their mothers in whole body, skin-to-skin contact or to no intervention (swaddle d in crib) during a standard heel lance procedure. Outcome Measures. The effectiveness of the intervention was determined by c omparing crying, grimacing, and heart rate differences between contact and control infants during and after blood collection. Results. Crying and grimacing were reduced by 82% and 65%, respectively, fr om control infant levels during the heel lance procedure. Heart rate also w as reduced substantially by contact. Conclusion. Skin-to-skin contact is a remarkably potent intervention agains t the pain experienced during heel stick in newborns.