Daily skin-to-skin contact alters microbiota development in healthy full-term infants

ABSTRACT

The gut microbiota is vital for human body development and function. Its development in early life is influenced by various environmental factors. In this randomized controlled trial, the gut microbiota was obtained as a secondary outcome measure in a study on the effects of one hour of daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) for five weeks in healthy full-term infants. Specifically, we studied the effects on alpha/beta diversity, volatility, microbiota maturation, and bacterial and gut-brain-axis-related functional abundances in microbiota assessed thrice in the first year. Pregnant Dutch women (n = 116) were randomly assigned to the SSC or care-as-usual groups. The SSC group participants engaged in one hour of daily SSC from birth to five weeks of age. Stool samples were collected at two, five, and 52 weeks and the V4 region was sequenced. We observed significant differences in the microbiota composition, bacterial abundances, and predicted functional pathways between the groups. The SSC group exhibited lower microbiota volatility during early infancy. Microbiota maturation was slower in the SSC group during the first year and our results suggested that breastfeeding duration may have partially mediated this relation. Our findings provide evidence that postpartum SSC may influence microbiota development. Replication is necessary to validate and generalize these results. Future studies should include direct stress measurements and extend microbiota sampling beyond the first year to investigate stress as a mechanism and research SSC’s impact on long-term microbiota maturation trajectories.

KEYWORDS:

• Gut microbiota development
• skin-to-skin intervention
• early development
• infancy
• RCT

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

The authors have made the following contributions. Henrik Eckermann: Original Draft Preparation, Data Analysis, Review & Editing; Jennifer Meijer: Original Draft Preparation, Data Analysis, Review & Editing; Kelly Cooijmans: Conceptualization, Review & Editing; Leo Lahti: Supervision, Review & Editing; Carolina de Weerth: Conceptualization, Review, & Editing, Supervision.

Data availability statement

The research data are part of an ongoing study but can be requested from C de Weerth ([email protected]) for scientific purposes.

Supplemental material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2023.2295403

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by grants from the graduate school of the Behavioural Science Institute of the Radboud University, a Jacobs Foundation Advanced Research Fellowship (to C. de Weerth), and a Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research VENI grant (016.195.197 to R. Beijers) and VICI grant (016.Vici.185.038 to C. de Weerth).