Early Skin-to-Skin Care with a Polyethylene Bag for Neonatal Hypothermia: A Randomized Clinical Trial

To determine whether early polyethylene bag use with skin-to-skin care compared with skin-to skin care alone reduce hypothermia among infants born at term in resource-limited settings. Infants born at term in the tertiary referral center in Lusaka, Zambia, were randomized using sequentially numbered sealed opaque envelopes in 2 phases: after birth (phase 1) and at 1 hour after birth (phase 2) to either skin-to-skin care with polyethylene bags or skin-to-skin care alone. Infant and maternal temperatures were recorded at birth, 1 hour, and every 4 hours until discharge or 24 hours. We enrolled 423 infants from May 2017 to August 2017. The rate of moderate-severe hypothermia (temperature