Objective: To evaluate dose of skin-to-skin (STS) contact as a nursing intervention to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding after discharge
Design: A descriptive correlational study
Setting: A Level II maternity unit in Ohio
Participants:
Women who had a vaginal delivery of a term, well newborn, with intent to exclusively breastfeed
Methods: Newborns were placed STS with their mothers at birth. Mothers were encouraged to maintain frequent STS with their newborns while in the hospital, and kept a log of STS time.
A lactation consultant made follow-up phone calls at 4 weeks and 8 weeks postpartum to assess breastfeeding exclusivity. Spearman rho was used to analyze the data.
Results: Duration of STS was not correlated with exclusive breastfeeding at either 4 weeks or 8 weeks postpartum. However,
early STS was correlated with exclusive breastfeeding at 4 weeks postpartum.