The effectiveness of swaddling and maternal holding applied during heel blood collection on pain level of healthy term newborns; randomized controlled trial

Abstract

This study was a prospective, randomized controlled trial. The study sample consisted of 105 healthy neonates who conformed to the case selection criteria. Neonates were randomly assigned to the following groups: swaddling (S), maternal holding (MH), and controls (C). The study data were obtained using an information form and the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS). There were no statistically significant differences between total crying times (C: 81.14 ± 44.93; S:79.28 ± 40.74; MH: 69.42 ± 31.10 sec.) and the time to first calming (C: 71.28 ± 50.87; S: 59.74 ± 42.40; MH: 54.85 ± 35.61) of heel stick procedures between all groups (p>.05). It was observed that procedural pain levels were the lowest in the maternal holding group (5.57 ± 1.24), followed by swaddling (5.82 ± 0.92), and the control group (6.40 ± 0.91). As a result, both swaddling and maternal holding are effective at reducing pain felt during heel stick procedures, but mother holding may be preferred as a priority rather than swaddling.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04625010.