Therapeutic Touch Modalities and Premature Neonate’s Health Outcome: A Literature Review

Abstract

Background: In Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the premature infant is often placed under incubator, phototherapy and with several cords and tubing connected all over body. They are subjected both to highly stressful environment (noise, bright light, frequent care related handling) and are often deprived of tactile stimulation that they would otherwise experience in general mothering care. The study explored literatures searching different modalities of giving therapeutic touch and its impact on pre-term infant in NICU. Results: The study explored different modalities of therapeutic touch- Gentle Human Touch, Supporting Holding, Massage technique, tactile stimulation, Tactile-kinesthetic stimulation and Yakson. All identified therapeutic touch modalities had shown several positive outcomes for pre-term neonates in NICU. Conclusion: As a non-invasive technique, therapeutic touch in any of the therapeutic modalities may be construed as providing developmentally appropriate, family centered care to the preterm neonates in NICU.