The Impact of Baby Kangaroo Care by the Father on Cortisol in Preterm Infants and Father

Abstract

Abstract: Background: Neonatal period is one of the most critical phases of human life and intensive care unit is a Stressful environment for the infant and it will be under the pressure of factors such as noise, nursing intervention, and harsh light, the most important is separation from parents and also for father and factors such as alarm sounds, responsibility and watch their baby’s behaviors aggravate his stress and separation from baby increases their negative feelings and stress. Objectives: This study aimed to achieve results of the effect of skin-to-skin care by father on the salivary cortisol in infant and father serum cortisol. Methods: This study is a randomized clinical trial on 45 premature infants paired by their fathers in NICU of Tabriz Alzahra Teaching Hospital conducted in November 2015. The control group received standard care and the intervention group did 45 minutes of skin to skin care. Saliva samples were collected from infants before, during, and after this study to measure the cortisol level. The statistical software SPSS 13 was used to analyze the data with the significant level of p < 0.05 in this study. Results: Salivary cortisol in babies in the control group had a mean 66.36 (S.D = 71.22) and intervention group a mean 59.56 (S.D = 59.20) with p=0.56. Fathers serum cortisol in the control group had a mean 69.54 (S.D = 25.57) and intervention group a mean 65.30 (S.D = 27.28) with p=0.59. Conclusions: both groups showed decreasing cortisol levels during the study, the reduction in the skin-to-skin care group was more than in the control group, with no significant difference between these two groups. Thus, making it possible for fathers to take care of their infants may be effective, helpful, and secure. This investigation shows that cortisol level of fathers didn’t decrease significantly after skin-to-skin care. Clinical trial registration: The research protocol were approved (Code TBZMED.REC.1394.489) by the Ethics Committee of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences and registered at the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials with IRCT2015081513691N5.