Pacifier and swaddling effective in impeding premature infant's pain score and heart rate

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of pacifier and swaddling on premature infant's pain score, hearthrate, and oxygen saturation during an invasive procedure. Method: This randomized control trial involv 30 premature infants who were randomly assigned into control (n = 15) and intervention (n = 15) groups using parallel design. Infants in the intervention group received pacifier and swaddling when they were undergoing invasive procedures. The outcome indicators of the two-day intervention were pain score, hearth rate, and oxygen saturation. The Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP) was used in this study to measure infants’ pain. Results: The paired t-test results showed that the pain score and heart rate were significantly increased following the procedure in the control group (p = 0.003; p = 0.013 < 0.05); meanwhile, there was no significant increase in the intervention group (p = 0.256; p = 0.783 > 0.005). There was no significant different in oxygen saturation in the control group (p = 0.270) and in the intervention (p = 0.370) group before and after the procedure. Conclusions: Providing pacifier and swaddling can impede the increase of premature infants’ pain score and hearth rate during an invasive procedures, therefore it can be implemented as an alternative to pain management in premature infants.