News

Study reveals unhindered contact between mother and baby leads to higher success rate in breastfeeding initiation

(29 November 2006)

Durham University’s Sleep Lab has completed a 2-year clinical trial which shows that unhindered mother and infant contact can have beneficial effects on the initiation of breast-feeding in the immediate post-birth period.

Outcomes of the research will be presented at the UNICEF Baby Friendly Conference in Cardiff today (Wednesday 29 November), and appear in the December issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood. The results of this trial are significant because, although the effects of early suckling and skin-to-skin contact on initiating breastfeeding are well known, this is the first study of its kind to show how important it is for mothers to be physically close to their babies in the first few days after the birth. The trial, conducted in collaboration with the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, compared the overnight breastfeeding frequency of babies in three different sleeping positions of varying proximity to their mothers; in the mother’s bed with removable cot-sides, in a side-car crib that attaches to the frame of the mother’s bed and in a stand-alone cot. The results revealed that babies sleeping in the bed and in the side-car crib made significantly more attempts to feed (both successful and unsuccessful) and showed more feeding effort than babies allocated to the cot. The importance of the frequency of both successful and unsuccessful feeding attempts in the early post-natal period has long been recognised as a key factor in establishing milk production and in learning how to suckle, with night-time feeds being particularly important. Dr Helen Ball who led the research at Durham University said, “Getting breastfeeding started and established successfully can lead to effective long-term breastfeeding. The results of this clinical trial would suggest that if a woman is keen to breastfeed her baby then maintaining unhindered contact throughout the night will aid the process.” “This unrestricted contact between mothers and their babies allows spontaneous feeding which is also important in order for mothers to understand their babies’ signals and to respond to those.” The safety of the babies was also monitored throughout the trial with particular focus on the potential risks relating to the covering of the baby’s external airways and falling from the sleeping area. Although there was more potential risk exposure to the baby’s breathing when they slept in the bed than in the crib or the cot, the risk cannot be eliminated in a cot due to the risk of external airways being covered through swaddling. Babies in the side-car crib tried to feed as often as those in the bed. As the potential for risks to the baby was equally low for both the sidecar crib and the stand-alone cot, the sidecar crib emerges from the study as the most effective post-natal ward sleeping environment for infants in optimising both breastfeeding initiation and infant safety.