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A mother's embrace helps to ease baby pain, study says
24 Apr 2008
Mothers' cuddles could be a natural painkiller for their babies, a study claims.
Canadian researchers found that premature babies underwent less suffering if they had skin-to-skin contact with their mother during a painful medical procedure.
Babies held by their mothers also recovered from pain quicker, the study suggested.
Researchers in the study, published in the journal BMC Pediatrics, monitored the facial reactions, heart rate and blood oxygen levels of 61 premature babies during a heel lance blood test, which involves pricking a baby's heel to gain a sample of blood.
Mums were asked to hold their children, all born between 28 and 31 weeks, 15 minutes before and throughout the procedure. On another occasion the same babies were simply swaddled in an incubator before and after the procedure.
When the babies were held in their mothers' arms their signs of pain dropped by half, and within three minutes babies' reactions had returned to normal, the study found.
This compared significantly to when the babies were left in the incubator before their treatment as they still showed signs of discomfort long after the procedure had finished.
"The pain response in very preterm neonates appears to be reduced by skin-to-skin maternal contact," Celeste Johnston, of McGill University, Montreal, who led the study, said.
Experts say the findings show the importance of regular skin-to-skin contact for premature babies' health.
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