Parent–Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact and Stress Regulation: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Chiara Ionio, Giulia Ciuffo and Marta Landoni
Additional contact information
Chiara Ionio: CRIdee, Psychology Department, Università Cattolica, del Sacro Cuore, 20123 Milan, Italy
Giulia Ciuffo: CRIdee, Psychology Department, Università Cattolica, del Sacro Cuore, 20123 Milan, Italy
Marta Landoni: CRIdee, Psychology Department, Università Cattolica, del Sacro Cuore, 20123 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: Several studies have focused on neonatal maternal separation (MS) to investigate behavioural and neuroendocrine reactions to lack of contact, but only a few have focused on early separation in the first days or weeks after birth. This literature review investigates the vital importance of contact and touch by exploring how skin-to-skin contact (SSC) regulates stress in the mother–infant relationship. Various databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect were searched for literature published between 2015 and 2020. From 1141 articles, 22 were declared eligible. The reviewed articles showed how SSC regulates child stress by biological indicators such as the autonomic nervous system (ANS), heart rate variability (HRV), cortisol, and oxytocin. This research concludes the importance of SSC for stress regulation, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. With no research to date indicating a possible risk of neonatal COVID-19 transmission following SSC, SSC should continue to be practiced for all women, as recommended by the WHO.

Keywords: skin-to-skin contact; kangaroo care; stress; sympathetic nervous system; cortisol; newborn; systematic review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4695/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4695/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:9:p:4695-:d:545237

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().