A low-cost intervention to promote immediate skin-to-skin contact and improve temperature regulation in Northern Uganda

Uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact between mothers and newborns during the first hour after birth has been reported to be 2% in Uganda. Aims To investigate if a low-cost intervention targeting the behaviors of hospital staff would increase skin-to-skin contact and to investigate whether skin-to-skin contact stabilized temperature in the newborn. Methods The study had a quasi-experimental, before and after design. The sample included 110 in the pre-intervention group, and 93 in the post-intervention group. Data collection included observations of skin-to-skin contact and temperature measurements. Data were also collected from medical records and interviews. Findings No infants had skin-to-skin contact before the intervention, whereas the proportion was 54.8% after the intervention. Infants who received skin-to-skin contact (n=51) and infants who did not receive skin-to-skin contact (n=146) increased in temperature; however, infants who received skin-to-skin contact were significantly warmer after 5 minutes and remained so at 60 minutes. Conclusions The intervention increased the practice of skin-to-skin contact, which was found to be safe in regard to temperature stabilization.

Keywords

Low-cost intervention, Newborn temperature, Observation, Skin-to-skin contact

Citation

Nissen, E., Svensson, K., Mbalinda, S., Brimdyr, K., Waiswa, P., Odongkara, B. M., & Hjelmstedt, A. (2019). A low-cost intervention to promote immediate skin-to-skin contact and improve temperature regulation in Northern Uganda. African Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health, 13(3), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.12968/ajmw.2018.0037

URI

https://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/7761

Collections

Medical and Health Sciences

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