Benefits of Skin-to-Skin Contact
You’ve probably heard of the importance of skin-to-skin contact right after birth. But did you know that touch can benefit babies’ development and learning long-term?
Experts at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford recommend skin-to-skin contact right after birth, during infancy, and throughout childhood. Immediately after birth, skin-to-skin contact assists in regulating babies’ temperature, heart rate, and breathing. It can also help them cry less. Because of this, it can be helpful to postpone cleaning, weighing, and testing the baby in favor of skin-to-skin time right away. (1)
If a mother’s goal is to breastfeed, this early skin-to-skin touch can facilitate the process. It also boosts relaxation hormones for the mother. (1)
“Even for babies born by cesarean section, skin-to-skin time right after delivery can be a wonderful, strong start for both mother and baby,” said obstetrician Susan Crowe, MD, told Stanford Medicine News Center. Dr. Crowe is the director of outpatient breastfeeding medicine services at Packard Children’s. (1)
And if there are medical needs that prevent a mother from skin-to-skin with her newborn, another person can provide this contact as well. It provides bonding time and also keeps the baby warm. (1)
Benefits of Touch for Babies and Parents
After parents bring their baby home from the hospital, infant massage is another way to provide beneficial touch. This has benefits for both infants and parents. Benefits include (1):
- Improves babies’ neurological function
- Boosts babies’ awareness of being loved and safe
- Improves babies’ sleep patterns
- Enhances babies’ digestion and elimination
- Increases weight gain for both premature and full-term babies
- Boosts relaxation for both parents and babies
- Enhances mothers’ lactation production
- Reduces mothers’ postpartum depression
Touch Helps Babies Learn Empathy
One study from the University of Washington revealed ways that touch can build foundations for learning in infants. The study was published in the journal Developmental Science in January 2018. (2)
Of the traditional five senses, touch develops first. Researchers at the University of Washington wanted to learn more about babies’ brain responses to touch and how it might impact their development. (2)
“Long before babies acquire spoken language, touch is a crucial channel of communication between caregivers and babies,” said the study’s primary author, Andrew Meltzoff, UW psychology professor. (2)
Images of brain activity showed infants’ responses to being touched, as well as seeing images of other people being touched. The same part of the babies’ brains noticed both the “felt touch” and “observed touch”. However, they had a weaker response to the touches they observed than to the ones they experienced. (2)
This information suggests that, while infants cannot yet verbally identify body parts, they understand that others are like them. They learn from imitating adults, and in order to do that, they need to distinguish between different body parts. (2)
“Before they have words for the body parts, babies recognize that their hand is like your hand, and their foot is like your foot. The neural body map helps connect babies to other people: The recognition that another person is ‘like me’ may be one of the baby’s first social insights,” Meltzoff told Science Daily. (2)
This initial social insight eventually develops into feeling empathy for others. And empathy is foundational to building healthy relationships. (2)
“The idea of using brain science to study how and when humans first feel a sense of connectedness with others is important and fascinating,” Meltzoff said to Science Daily. “We can now look under the hood and see what’s happening when a baby watches and connects to others.” (2)
