Introduction
SECONDARY
Skin-to-skin contact (SSC) is an evidence-based method of care that involves placing the naked infant on the parent’s bare chest. The SSC method is routinely practiced intermittently for preterm infants in the neonatal unit. Because of its multiple benefits, SSC between newborn infants and mothers provided in the immediate period after birth is considered the standard of care.Good-quality early parent-infant interactions have protective effects on infant social-emotional, cognitive, and behavioral developmentSkin-to-skin contact provides an environment that is sensitive to the infant’s needs and gives opportunities for emotionally supportive interactions that stimulate brain growth and development.There seem to be critical time points after birth when SSC is especially important for the developing parent-infant relationship. Yet evidence remains scarce as to whether parent-infant SSC initiated immediately after birth for preterm infants is more beneficial than standard incubator care (with later initiation of SSC), in terms of supporting the mother-infant relationship. Thus, the main objective of this study was to determine the effect of immediate SSC at birth for very preterm infants on mother-infant interaction at 4 months of corrected infant age. An exploratory and secondary objective was to investigate whether the potential relationship between immediate SSC after birth and mother-infant interaction at 4 months would be mediated through accumulated SSC in the early postpartum period (within 72 hours and 8 days after birth). We hypothesized that SSC provided to the very preterm infant within the first hours after birth improves mother-infant interaction quality in infancy.