Joint Study Finds Parental Touch Reduces Babies’ Response to Pain
A new study conducted by the UCL and York University, Canada, found that being held by a parent through a skin-to-skin contact lessens how intensely the brain of a baby reacts to a painful therapeutic injection.
Based on the study published in the European Journal of Pain, there was more activity in newborn babies' brains in response to pain when a mother or father was holding them with clothing, compared to without clothing.
A new study found that 'being held by a parent through a skin-to-skin contact' reduces how intensely the brain of a baby reacts to a painful therapeutic injection.
According to UCL Neuroscience's Dr. Lorenzo Fabrizi, joint senior author, they have found that when a parent holds a baby via skin-to-skin contact, the higher-level brain processing in response to pain is, to some extent, reduced.
He also said that the brain of the baby uses a different pathway to process its reaction to pain. While they cannot verify if the baby is actually feeling less pain, their findings strengthen the vital role of touch between a parent and their newborn baby.
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Babies' Response to Pain
The authors engaged 27 babies at University College London Hospitals aged 0 to 96 days old and were born premature or at term age.
As part of their study, the researchers measured the infants' response to painful yet clinically required heel lance blood test.
The activity of the brain was recorded using electroencephalography or EEG electrodes placed on the babies' scalp.
The infants were either held by their mother against her chest, skin-to-skin, with a diaper on, or held by their clothed mother, or else lying on an incubator from which most babies were wrapped in clothing.
As a result, as the said blood test stimulated a serious of up to five brain activity waves, the activity's later waves were affected by whether the infant was held with clothing or skin-to-skin contact.
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Slight Delay in Response
According to Canada-based York University's Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell, joint senior author, the slight delay in response was reduced if there was skin contact between the parent and infant, suggesting that parental touch affects the higher-level processing of the brain.
The professor added that the pain might be very similar, although the brain of the baby is processing and responding to pain depending on the amount of contact with the parent.
Their research findings back the idea that holding an infant against your skin is important to their development.
The behavior of the babies was not considerably different between groups. However, the skin-to-skin group of infants did show slightly diminished reactions when it comes to facial expression and heart rate.
Other studies have also discovered that skin-to-skin communication with a parent indeed impacts a baby's behavior and may lessen how intensely they are reacting to pain. However, these sources did not examine the response of the brain.
A current study shows that the babies' brain reactions were not just reduced in the skin-to-skin group, but followed a different pathway.
UCL Neuroscience's Dr. Laura Jones, the first author, said infants' brains have a high degree of plasticity, especially those born preterm. Their growth is highly reliable to their connection with their parents.
Their findings pave the way to new understandings into how infants are learning to process threats as they are particularly sensitive to maternal signals.
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Sep 24, 2020 10:55 PM EDT
