PICTURE THIS: A tiny premature baby seeks comfort of human touch

IN A new series, we bring you fascinating pictures shared by doctors — and the stories behind them.

Just how fragile premature babies are is poignantly illustrated in this extraordinary image. Born at just 26 weeks, this tiny girl weighed less than 1 lb and was admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit at a hospital in the u.s.. Her hand was only around 2cm from little finger to thumb.

the picture was posted by a nurse on Figure 1, an app and website where medical staff worldwide share images, and canvass colleagues’ opinions.

‘I was changing her nappy and she just held on to my hand,’ the nurse wrote. I had to stop and just let her. Human touch is so important [to these babies].’

the picture was taken before rules in the hospital she works at were introduced, requiring staff to wear gloves during routine care such as nappy-changing and temperature-taking, to prevent infection. ‘ It makes me sad because they really do need human touch,’ the nurse wrote.

In the uK, neonatal staff don’t have to wear gloves as skin contact is so beneficial. Research has shown that from birth, touch is crucial to a child’s physical and psychological development.

It’s actively encouraged between mothers and newborns. It’s thought to stimulate production of prolactin, the milkstimulating hormone, and oxytocin, the ‘cuddle hormone’.

this helps explain why skin-toskin contact mothers are likely to breastfeed longer, as a study published last year by Vanderbilt university in the u.s. found.

Incredibly, premature babies given skin-to-skin contact showed the benefits 20 years later, says a Colombian study that followed more than 250 babies. the researchers, writing in the u.s. journal Pediatrics in December, reported these children had reduced hyperactivity, reduced school absenteeism, were less aggressive and more socially able than a control group.

And brain scans showed the skin-to-skin group even had more grey matter — the tissue that houses the crucial brain cells.

this may be because such babies are calmer and sleep better, which helps brains mature.

‘Exposure to bacteria on the mother’s skin also helps develop the immune system,’ adds Kate Pinney, midwifery manager at pregnancy charity tommy’s.

‘For premature babies, skin contact is more important, as they need more help to thrive.’

As for the baby here ‘responding’ to the nurse’s touch, it is likely she actually did. Babies crave close contact because they need to recreate conditions experienced before birth, says Professor Craig Jackson, a psychologist at Birmingham City university.

the good news is that the tiny baby in this picture is now a ‘happy, healthy, 14 lb nine-monthold’, the nurse says. ‘Premature babies are the definition of a miracle. I have the best job ever.’