A B S T R A C T
Objective: To evaluate the effect of mother–infant immediate skin-to-skin contact on primiparous
mother’s breastfeeding self-efficacy.
Study design: A randomised control trial.
Settings: The study was conducted in Omolbanin obstetrics hospital (large tertiary hospital), Mashhad,
Iran.
Participants: 114 18–35 year-old primiparous, Iranian, healthy and full term mothers who anticipated
normal vaginal delivery and intended to breastfeed their babies.
Intervention: Skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth and then controlling breastfeeding selfefficacy at 28 days postpartum.
Main outcome measure: Maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy at 28 days postpartum and success in first
breastfeeding and mean time of first breastfeeding initiation.
Results: A total of 92 mother–infant dyads (47 dyads in skin-to-skin care skin-to-skin contact group and
45 dyads in routine care group) were monitored and analysed. In skin-to-skin contact group,
breastfeeding self-efficacy was 53.42 8.57 SD as compared to 49.85 5.50 SD in routine care group
which is significantly higher in skin-to-skin contact group (p = 0.0003).
Successful breastfeeding initiation rate was 56.6% in skin-to-skin contact group as compared to 35.6%
in routine care group (p = 0.02).
Time to initiate first feed was 21.98 9.10 SD min in SSC group vs. 66.55 20.76 min in routine care
group (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: Mother–infant immediate skin-to-skin contact is an easy and available method of enhancing
maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy. High breastfeeding self-efficacy increases exclusive breastfeeding
duration.