Skin-to-Skin Care: From Routine Practice to Lifesaving Standard

By Fiona Rea, ALCI Vice President

Report 2 From The ELACTA Conference 2026

In her talk on skin-to-skin care, Ylva Blomqvist made a clear and compelling case: keeping babies and parents together is not just beneficial; it should be the foundation of modern neonatal care.

Blomqvist’s perspective is shaped not only by research but by personal experience. After years of working as a neonatal nurse, she became a mother to a premature baby and experienced separation firsthand. That moment reframed her understanding. Practices she once considered standard, such as placing babies in incubators and encouraging parents to rest away from their infants, now felt deeply flawed. This realisation led her into research and advocacy for non-separation and skin-to-skin care.

The scientific evidence, she explained, is no longer in question. Major organisations, including the World Health Organisation, strongly recommend immediate and continuous skin-to-skin contact after birth for all infants, full-term, premature, and even critically ill. Studies consistently show that this simple intervention stabilises heart rate, improves oxygen levels, supports temperature regulation, and strengthens parent-infant bonding. It is, in many cases, lifesaving.

But the real challenge we have is not proving its value, it is implementing it in everyday clinical practice.

Blomqvist emphasized that “what you do often, you become good at.” If healthcare systems normalise separation, it becomes routine. If they instead prioritise closeness, that too becomes standard. In Sweden, where she works, policies and infrastructure are designed to support this approach. Parents are encouraged and enabled to remain with their babies 24/7, even in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Family-centered care is not an ideal; it is built into the system.

This includes practical changes such as hospital rooms where parents can sleep beside their infants, medical rounds conducted with parents present, and home-based follow-up care that minimises disruption. Even highly premature babies born as early as 22–25 weeks are gradually introduced to skin-to-skin care once stable, sometimes within the first days of life.

One of the most striking insights from this talk was how skin-to-skin contact affects even the sickest infants. Babies who appear unstable in incubators often stabilise when placed on a parent’s chest. Stress decreases, vital signs improve, and the need for medical intervention can lessen. Blomqvist argued that separation itself can be a source of physiological stress, while closeness acts as a regulator.

Importantly, this approach does not replace medical care; instead, it works alongside it. Babies on respiratory support, receiving intravenous treatments, or undergoing monitoring can still be held safely with proper protocols. The key is designing systems that make closeness possible rather than treating it as optional.

The benefits extend beyond the hospital. Early closeness supports breastfeeding, enhances parental confidence, and contributes to better long-term neurological outcomes. It shifts parents from passive observers to active caregivers from the very beginning.

Blomqvist also highlighted a broader principle, that when separation is avoided early, fewer interventions may be needed later to repair disrupted bonding or developmental challenges. Prevention, in this sense, is not complex; it is relational.

Ultimately, the message is both simple and transformative. Skin-to-skin care is not a luxury or an “extra.” It is a biologically appropriate, evidence-based standard that humanizes care while improving outcomes. The task now is not to prove it works, but to ensure it becomes the norm everywhere.