At the Department of Pediatrics, Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway, a comparison was made between recent practice (second study) and practice a decade ago (first study), regarding separation time from childbirth until mothers achieved close contact with their premature infants. This time of delayed contact was measured in four different ways: when mothers 1) first saw their infants, 2) - touched their infants, 3) - saw their infants eyes, and 4) - held their infants.
Methods:
Registration-scedule, existing sources of data, and inteview were used.
Interventions were taken beteen the two studies to reduce the long separation, which included taking small, stable, prematurely born infants out of the incubators during their mothers' visit, in spite of the infants' need for a respirator. Skin to skin holding was introdced.
Findings/Conclusion:
With respect to all four kinds of close contact, strongly significant differences were found between recent separation practice and the former practice. Average waiting time until mothers held their infants was reduced by 80,9%.
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