JPSIM Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine J Pak Soc Intern Med 2709-8729 2710-0804 Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine 10.70302/jpsim.v7i1.2611 jpsim.v7i1.2611 Original Research The Effect of Very Early Skin-to-Skin Contact on Success of Breastfeeding Mansoor Ammara ammaramansoor61@gmail.com * Ilyas Anam Javed Hina Hassan Saleha Naeem Maryam Ilyas Ayesha Gujranwala Medical College/ Gujranwala Teaching Hospital Gujranwala Khwaja Muhammad Safdar Medical College Sialkot Watim General Hospital, Rawalpindi *Correspondence: Ammara Mansoor (ammaramansoor61@gmail.com) 10 03 2026 2026 7 1 52 57 01 05 2025 14 01 2026 19 02 2026 Copyright © 2026 The Author(s) 2026 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective

To compare the success of breastfeeding at six weeks of life in neonates with and without early skin to skin contact (SSC)

 Methodology

The comparative case control study was conducted at Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, DHQ Teaching Hospital, Gujranwala from 1st November 2024 to 31st March 2025. Non-probability consecutive sampling technique was used. After obtaining ethical committee permission 270 women were selected after fulfilling required selection criteria. Women were divided in two equal groups. In group A, the skin-to-skin contact (SSC) was applied while in group B, the routine care was provided. At the end of 6 weeks, the success of breastfeeding was assessed. Data was analyzed by SPSS 25. A p-value of ≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

 Results

The mean age was 28.87±6.53 years. The mean gestational age was 39.49±1.69 weeks. Out of 270 babies born, 128(47.4%) were males. The success of breastfeeding was 85(63.0%) in group-A and 57(42.2%) in group-B (p-value 0.001).

 Conclusion

The preliminary outcomes of the skin to skin contact demonstrate a notable enhancement in the incidence of successful breastfeeding relative to standard care practices. Validation of the data through studies with larger sample sizes would yield a more comprehensive understanding of the issue.

 Keywords Breastfeeding Early Skin-To-Skin Contact Exclusive Breastfeeding Infant Kangaroo-Mother Care Ethics Statement

Ethics committee: Institutional Review Board, Gujranwala Medical College, Gujranwala, Pakistan. Approval number: IRB.89.GMC, dated October 29, 2024.

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