Mother‐infant skin‐to‐skin contact after delivery results in early recognition of own mother's milk odour

Abstract

Aim: To determine the effects of mother‐infant skin‐to‐skin contact immediately after birth on infant recognition of their own mother's milk odour and breastfeeding duration until 1 y of age. Methods: Sixty healthy, full‐term neonates were randomly assigned to group A with skin‐to‐skin contact and group B without. One and 4d after birth, infant responses to the following odour stimuli were observed: own mother's milk, another mother's milk, formula, orange juice and distilled water. Infant facial action was videotaped and the frequency of mouthing movements was evaluated for each stimulus. Nutritional assessment, focused particularly on breastfeeding, was performed every 3 mo on participating infants. Statistical analysis comparing the frequency of mouthing movements with the aforementioned five different odour exposures was performed by ANOVA with Fisher's PLSD. Kaplan‐Meier analysis with a log‐rank test was used to compare breastfeeding rates between groups. Results: Infants in both groups responded differently to mother's milk odour (either their own or another mother's milk) compared to the other stimuli on days 1 and 4. However, infants in group A demonstrated a larger difference in mouthing movements between their own and another mother's milk odour at 4 d of age (2.6 ±; 1.6) compared to infants in group B (0.9 ±; 2.0, p= 0.01). Infants in group A were breastfed an average of 1.9 mo longer than the others. Conclusion: Our study provides evidence that mother‐infant skin‐to‐skin contact for more than 50 min immediately after birth results in enhanced infant recognition of their own mother's milk odour and longer breastfeeding duration.

The “smellscape” of mother's breast: Effects of odor masking and selective unmasking on neonatal arousal, oral, and visual responses

“…The first is the most obvious and copious: colostrum and, after lactogenesis onset, milk, are both emitted from the main galactophore ducts opening at the tip of the nipples. Accumulating evidence shows that odor cues carried in human colostrum and milk are arousing and attractive to newborns Mizuno & Ueda, 2004;Mizuno, Mizuno, Shinohara, & Noda, 2004). These volatile cues are unstable, however, as human milk is most olfactorily effective to elicit infant responses within 60 min after collection (Couegnas, 2003).…”

Early Skin-to-Skin Contact and Breast-Feeding Behavior in Term Neonates: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The majority of the studies on SSC have evaluated its effect on the duration and exclusivity of BF during infancy [1]; only a few studies have looked at the success of BF in the immediate neonatal period [6,7,8,9]. While three trials assessed the success of the first breast feed, only one study has so far evaluated the effect at a later age [8].…”

Élaboration et diffusion dans un réseau de santé en périnatalité de recommandations concernant les « Soins au nouveau-né normal dans les deux premières heures »

“…Le peau-à-peau, opposé à la mise en lit ou en couveuse, a été argumenté par de nombreux travaux, étayés par des études scientifiques rigoureuses : bien-être du bébé [62], constance de la température [63], constance des glycémies, rareté des cris, meilleure saturation O 2 , baisse de la sécrétion d'adrénaline, meilleure mise en route de l'allaitement maternel, baisse des manifestations de douleur [64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73].…”