title: Effect of mother/infant skin-to-skin contact on postpartum depressive symptoms and maternal physiological stress.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of mother/infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) on mothers' postpartum depressive symptoms during the first 3 postpartum months and their physiological stress during the first postpartum month.
  
  
  METHODS
  Longitudinal quasi-experiment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected during home visits.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mothers in the SSC group (n = 30) provided approximately 5 hours per day of SSC with their infants in the infants' first week and then more than 2 hours per day until the infants were age one month. Mothers in the control group (n = 60) provided little or no SSC. All mothers had full-term infants.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mothers completed self-report depression scales when infants were 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months of age.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to mothers in the control group, mothers in the SSC group had lower scores on the depression scales when the infants were one week and marginally lower scores when the infants were one month; when the infants were age 2 and 3 months, there were no differences between groups in the mothers' depression scores. Over their infants' first month, mothers in the SSC group had a greater reduction in their salivary cortisol than mothers in the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mother/infant SSC benefits mothers by reducing their depressive symptoms and physiological stress in the postpartum period.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. abigelow@stfx.ca
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bigelow
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Power
authors.forename: Janis
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: MacLellan-Peters
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alex
authors.forename: Claudette
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McDonald
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002170:Canada; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016014:Linear Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D012463:Saliva; D012867:Skin; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D014110:Touch
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone