The Effectiveness of Hammock Positioning in Regulating Behavioral Patterns in Preterm: A Systematic Review

Background- Preterm newborns benefit from supportive developmental techniques such as hammock placement, which give them a sense of being in the womb that promotes calm, relaxation, and deep restful sleep.
Objective- To identify and synthesize the available evidence on the effect of hammock positioning in regulating behavioral patterns and sleep in preterm infants admitted to the NICU
Data Sources: We searched the Google Scholar, Pubmed, and Scopus databases for reports of primary research studies using a three-step strategy. We also searched for and reviewed the reference lists of retrieved articles.
Methods:  We included data from randomized controlled trials, Quasi-experimental and Comparative study measuring the effects of hammock positioning on physiological stress outcomes, defined as oxygen saturation, body temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate, Sleep-wakefulness, and behavioral pattern. The PRISMA model was used to conduct data extraction. We performed a narrative synthesis of all studies when data were available from multiple studies.
Results: Five studies were eligible for inclusion. Infants who received hammock positioning has shown to have a higher mean heart rate, oxygen saturation and temperature, Sleep-wakefulness and improved behavioral patterns.
Conclusions: Current evidence suggests that hammock positioning in the neonatal intensive care unit setting is a safe method that may significantly affect some of the physiological parameters of stress, improved behavioral patterns and Sleep-wakefulness in preterm infants. However, due to clinical heterogeneity, further studies are needed to assess the effects of physiological stress in the neonatal intensive care unit on the development of preterm infants.