Dr. Kajsa Brimdyr, Healthy Children Project faculty and research team member, spoke at the Stockholm Conference on Ultra-Early Intervention on March 23 and the NIDCAP Network Conference on March 24, 2023. Dr. Brimdyr is passionate about her research on the benefits of skin-to-skin contact after birth and is excited to share research on how these benefits can be extended to infants in the NICU.

On March 23, the Stockholm Conference on Ultra-Early Intervention welcomed Dr. Brimdyr to talk about the nine stages of skin-to-skin contact in premature infants. The talk was based on the research paper titled “Connecting the dots between fetal, premature and full-term behaviour while in skin-to-skin contact: The nine stages of instinctive behaviour,” published in Breastfeeding Review in November 2021. The work ties in with the 2023 conference theme Always Together, demonstrating what is possible when the parents are given the opportunity to remain together with their premature infant, with ample time for skin-to-skin contact, and the instinctive behaviors of the newborn that might be missed if the parents are not together with their baby to observe and appreciate those cues.

The following day, Dr. Brimdyr presented The 9 Stages of Instinctive Behavior: not just for full-term infants! Connecting the dots between fetal, premature, and full-term behavior while in skin-to-skin, at the NIDCAP (Newborn Individualized Care and Assessment Program) conference. The talk is based on her work filming and observing behaviors of premature infants when given the chance to experience skin-to-skin contact with their mother in the NICU.

The video presented at the conference is also available at on healthed.com.