Maternal Holding vs Oral Glucose Administration as Nonpharmacologic Analgesia in Newborns

Nonpharmacologic analgesia is administered in newborns using, for example, sweet solutions, breastfeeding, or maternal holding.Nonpharmacologic analgesia can decrease pain during minor procedures, such as a heel prick for blood sampling. From a neurophysiological standpoint, a previous study has demonstrated that, during a heel prick, oral glucose administration is associated with no significant cortical activation and therefore may interfere with the pain-associated response at the cortical level. Conversely, breastfeeding analgesia is associated with generalized cortical activation and may act by multisensory stimulation, possibly overwhelming the perception of pain. We aimed to study the effect of 2 nonpharmacologic analgesic methods (administration of an oral glucose solution and maternal holding) on neonatal cortical activation during a heel prick. We tested the hypothesis that analgesia associated with maternal holding would differ from that associated with oral glucose administration and would be mediated by a difference in cortical activation.