Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mother-infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) immediately after birth helps transition infants to the post-uterine environment and increases the likelihood of breastfeeding initiation and duration. This study examines trends in U.S. maternity practices related to SSC, and variations by facility demographics. METHODS: Data were from the Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care (mPINC) surveys (2007-2015), a biennial assessment of all U.S. maternity facilities. Facilities reported how often patients were encouraged to practice mother-infant SSC for ≥30 minutes within 1 hour of uncomplicated vaginal birth and 2 hours of uncomplicated cesarean birth, and how often routine infant procedures are performed while in SSC. We calculated the percentage of maternity facilities reporting these indicators for ≥90% of patients across the United States for each survey year. Estimates by facility characteristics (size, type, and state) were calculated for 2015 only. RESULTS: The percentage of facilities reporting "Most (≥90%)" women, which were encouraged to practice early SSC, increased from 2007 to 2015 following both vaginal (40.4% to 83.0%) and cesarean (29.3% to 69.9%) births. The percentage of facilities reporting routine infant procedures were performed "Almost always (≥90%)," while mother and infant were SSC increased from 16.6% to 49.5% (2007 to 2015) for vaginal births and from 2.2% to 10.7% (2009 to 2015) for cesarean births. Variations in SSC practice by facility type, size, and state were noted. CONCLUSIONS: Significant progress has been made in increasing hospital encouragement of early SSC for both vaginal and cesarean births. Continued efforts to support evidence-based maternity practices are needed.