The effect of skin-to-skin contact on term neonatal pain-stress levels while receiving heel blood

The procedure of removing heel blood from the sole of the foot, where neonatal nerve conduction is intense, causes pain and stress in the newborn. It is among the duties of the nurse to evaluate the pain of the newborn and prevent it during this procedure. At the same time, the nurse must take role of mother-infant bonding and direct the mother to feel that she is self-sufficient in the care and feeding of the mother. Skin-to-skin contact is a step that allows the baby to feel safe in connecting the mother-infant and affect the development of personality in the transition from intrauterin life to extrauterin life. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the effect of skin-to-skin contact on pain and stress level in the newborn anxiety of the newborn and mother at this stage. The study was conducted in Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital Gynecology Clinic between January 2019 - February 2019 with clinical, randomized controlled, experimental, prospective. In this study, 68 healthy newborns who met the selection criteria of the research group without choosing the sample group constituted the universe of the study. Of the 68 newborns, 34 were included in the control group and 34 were treated. Newborns in the control group were evaluated without any intervention other than routine procedures and their mother's anxiety level was examined. The heel blood was taken to the newborns after the intervention and the effect of the newborn on pain and stress level and anxiety level of the mother was examined by skin-to-skin. As a result of multiple comparison tests, it was found that the effect of skin-to-skin contact on newborn pain and stress level in the intervention group was significantly lower than the control group. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of the effect of skin-to-skin contact on the mother. As a result, the application of skin-to-skin contact during the procedure of heel blood, which is procedural pain, can be used as a supportive method.