None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Skin-to-skin contact (SSC) between a parent and their baby is a commonly used intervention in Neonatal Intensive Special Care Units (NISC). It can help parents to feel more connected to their baby, and feel attached and bonded, as well as help them to feel like they are interacting with their newborn baby, and helping them to feel a little more like a "normal" parent. It also offers multiple benefits to the baby and is the closest for them to being back inside their mother's stomach, as they were before being born. They can hear their mother's heart beat and know their smell, so it can offer the baby comfort and warmth and feel love from their parent. Over recent years, there has been an increased focus on the use of family centred-care interventions, such as SSC, being utilised in NISCs. However, there is an overall lack of studies conducted in Australia on the effect that the duration of the SSC between a parent and baby in a NISC setting has on physiological benefits to the baby, as well as physiological benefits to the parents (both mothers and fathers). The physiological measurements examined in the current study are the baby's heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature and oxygen saturation. The parent's physiological measurements examined in the current study are the parent's heart rate and blood pressure. For the current study, it is hypothesized that the effects from the SSC for the baby will be increased when they have longer SSC with their parent. For the parents, it is hypothesized that there will be physiological benefits from the SSC with their baby, reflected as lower heart rate and blood pressure, and that these benefits will increase with a longer duration of SSC.
Interventions
For each parent-neonate pair involved in the study, one skin-to-skin contact (SSC) between parent and neonate is being observed.
This SSC can take place at any time during the neonate's admission to the NISC, whilst the neonate is aged between 28 weeks gestation to 34 weeks and 6 days gestation and is on oxygen support.
For the purpose of the study, the length of the SSC between parent and neonate is for the time the parent wishes and the neonate is stable for. The SSC will be observed by the R
For each parent-neonate pair involved in the study, one skin-to-skin contact (SSC) between parent and neonate is being observed. This SSC can take place at any time during the neonate's admission to the NISC, whilst the neonate is aged between 28 weeks gestation to 34 weeks and 6 days gestation and is on oxygen support. For the purpose of the study, the length of the SSC between parent and neonate is for the time the parent wishes and the neonate is stable for. The SSC will be observed by the Researchers just once for the purpose of the study.
Sponsors
Hannah Jones
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Neonates who are admitted to The Royal Women's Hospital Neonatal Intensive and Special Care Unit, and their parents, are eligible to participate if they: 1) Are 28 weeks gestation to 34 weeks and 6 days gestation upon admission to the NISC 2) Are currently receiving oxygen therapy 3) The parents are wanting to provide skin-to-skin contact to their neonate
Exclusion criteria
Neonates who are admitted to The Royal Women's Hospital Neonatal Intensive and Special Care Unit are excluded if they: 1) Are deemed not to be medically stable to have skin-to-skin contact during the conduction of the research study 2) If their parents do not speak English as a first language 3) Have any of the following requirements or conditions: *Are receiving high frequency ventilation, sensormedics or nitric oxide *Have experienced a deterioration within the last 24 hours, as defined by the clinical team *Are requiring multiple phototherapy lights *Are suffering from alcohol and drug withdrawal
Outcome results
None listed