Skin-to-skin contact boosts brain growth in babies

By Stephen Beech

Premature babies thrive thanks to the power of touch, suggests new research.

Skin-to-skin care in babies born before 32 weeks is linked to "measurable differences" in their brain development, scientists say.

Longer cuddle sessions were also associated with signs of brain growth in regions tied to emotional and stress regulation, as well as memory.

American researchers say their findings, published in the journal Neurology, underscore how nurturing touch during a "critical window" may influence how a premature baby's brain develops.

The study showed that babies born before 32 weeks who received more skin-to-skin contact while in the hospital showed stronger brain development in areas tied to emotion and stress regulation than babies who received less skin-to-skin care.

The researchers emphasized that the findings don't prove that skin-to-skin care directly causes stronger brain development; it only shows an association.

But study author Dr. Katherine Travis, of Burke Neurological Institute in White Plains, New York, said: “Skin-to-skin contact in preterm infants has been shown to have many benefits, with previous studies linking it to improved bonding, sleep, heart and lung function and growth, as well as reduced pain and stress.

“Our findings in infants born very preterm suggest skin-to-skin care may also play a role in shaping early brain development, highlighting the potential importance of caregiving experiences during the earliest weeks of a preemie’s life.”

The study included 88 premature babies with a mean gestational age of 29 weeks who weighed an average of 2.65 lbs. Their average stay in the hospital was two months.

The goal of the study was to find out whether skin-to-skin holding - also called "kangaroo care" - was linked to brain development in areas that help regulate emotions and stress.

Researchers tracked skin-to-skin care with family members throughout each baby's time in hospital, including how long each session lasted and the total minutes per day.

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Families visited an average of once per day. When they provided skin-to-skin care, the average session was around 70 minutes, with 73% of sessions provided by mothers.

For the entire hospital stay, the average amount of skin-to-skin care per day was 24 minutes.

Each baby received a brain scan before going home from the hospital, around the time they would have reached the full-term age of around 40 weeks.

The brain scans measured how water moves through brain tissue.

That movement helps reveal how white matter - the brain’s communication network - is developing.

The research team then compared the markers of white matter with the amount of time the premature babies received skin-to-skin care per session and per day.

For skin-to-skin duration per session, the researchers found longer sessions were linked to higher mean diffusivity - how freely water moves through the brain - in two key brain regions: the cingulum, which supports attention and emotion regulation; and the anterior thalamic radiations, which connect areas involved in emotional processing and memory.

Longer sessions were also linked to lower fractional anisotropy - how water movement is influenced by developing cellular tissues - in the anterior thalamic radiations.

The study also found that higher daily total minutes of skin-to-skin care were linked to higher mean diffusivity in the anterior thalamic radiations.

And they were also linked to lower fractional anisotropy in the anterior thalamic radiations.

The associations remained "significant" even after the research team accounted for factors that could influence brain development, including gestational age at birth, age at time of scan, and how often the family visited.

Dr. Travis said, “Our findings add to growing evidence that white matter development is sensitive to a pre-term infant’s experience while in the hospital."

She added: “Skin-to-skin care not only provides preterm infants with family connections through bonding, it may also be encouraging new connections within the brain itself, improving a baby’s brain health overall.”