Sudden unexpected post-natal collapse (SUPC) during skin-to-skin care (SSC): where is the trouble?

Abstract

Skin-to-skin care (SSC) consists in the early and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between the newborn and the mother. This practice brings several benefits to infants, such as cardiorespiratory stability, breastfeeding, thermoregulation and crying reduction; therefore, SSC application represents the best practice in the birth points around the world. However, it is not risk free; in fact, the occurrence of a sudden unexpected post-natal collapse (SUPC) has been reported many times in literature. SUPC can be defined as a sudden and unexpected postnatal collapse affecting term or near term infant, who appears well at birth, but who unexpectedly collapses within the first week of life, in such a way as to require intensive care or to develop encephalopathy or to die. New research acquisitions suggest that the hypoplasia of the rostral pontine Kölliker-Fuse nucleus, notoriously deputy to regulate the breathing rate, may represent the cause of death for SUPC during SSC.