Effects of Stimulating the Sucking Reflex by Little Finger on the Length of Time of the First Breastfeeding of Newborns Whose Mothers had Received Intravenous Pethidine

Abstract

Pethidine can cross placenta to the fetus. Pethidine given to the mothers within four hours prior to delivery causes central nervous system depression in the newly born infants, results in decreased reflexes involving breastfeeding. Ultimately, the newborn infants may have delayed and ineffective early breastfeeding. This study was conducted to assess the effects of sucking reflex stimulation in infants whose mothers received intravenous pethidine within 4 hours prior to delivery on the time to the beginning of breastfeeding and proportion of infants with successful breastfeeding.The study was a randomized controlled trial. Term infants born to mothers who received intravenous pethidine within four hours prior to delivery were recruited. They were allocated to a “study group” and a “control group”. Infants in the study group received sucking reflex stimulation before first breastfeeding, while those in the control group did not. The study was between April 2009 and February 2010. Two hundreds infants were recruited to the study, 96 and 104 infants in the study and control group, respectively. The mean time to the beginning of breastfeeding was not significantly different between the groups, 6.72 (SD 11.09) minutes and 7.26 (SD 10.50) minutes in the study and the control groups, respectively. Number of infants having successful breastfeeding in the study group was not significantly different from the control group, 80 (83.3%) and 95 (91.3%), respectively.

It was concluded that stimulating the sucking reflex by a little finger had no benefit to the newly born infants whose mothers received intravenous pethidine within 4 hours prior to delivery. Further studies on other interventions like rooting reflex stimulation, stimulation with tactile or other arousal techniques should be considered.