Effects of early mother-neonate skin-to-skin contact on the duration of the third stage of labor: A randomized clinical trial

The most important intervention to prevent the prolongation of the third stage of labor is the prescription of chemical drugs that have adverse effects despite their efficacy. Therefore, it seems necessary to seek for alternative methods with higher safety. Regarding this, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of immediate and continuous mother-neonate skin-to-skin contact (SSC) on the duration of the third stage of labor.
This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 92 primiparous women who referred to Omolbanin Hospital in Mashhad, Iran. The participants were divided into two groups of SSC and routine care (RC). In the SSC group, at the end of the second stage of labor, the neonate was placed naked against his/her mothers’ skin in a prone position. In the RC group, the newborns were kept under a radiant heater, and after the repairing of the perineum, they were transferred to their mothers in a blanket. The data were analyzed in SPSS (version 14) using the Chi-square test and independent t-test test. The P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
The duration of the third stage of labor was less than 5 min in 11 (23.4%) and 3 (6.7%) participants in the SSC and RC groups, respectively. Additionally, this duration was within 10-20 min in 6 (12.8%) and 13 (28.9%) subjects of the SSC and RC groups, respectively. Accordingly, there was a significant difference between the two groups in this regard (P=0.02). Furthermore, the SSC group had a significantly lower need for synthetic oxytocin after delivery as compared to the RC group (P=0.03).
As the findings indicated, early mother-neonate SSC can shorten the length of the third stage of labor and reduce the need for a high dose of synthetic oxytocin and its complications. Therefore, this approach can be used a simple, cost-effective, efficient, and uncomplicated method to accelerate the third stage of labor and decrease the rate of postpartum hemorrhage, which is one of the main causes of maternal mortality and morbidity.