Design A randomized controlled study was conducted on 400 mothers, who were divided into two groups: 200 mothers who applied skin-to-skin infant care (SSC) for at least 1 h daily for 12 weeks and 200 mothers who performed the usual mother–infant care. The mothers were recruited from the Obstetric Department of Al-Zahraa University Hospital in Cairo, Egypt. The enrolled mothers' infants were assessed for body weight. Sleep hours and frequency of breast milk feeding were evaluated by the mother during the day. All of the mothers who took part in the study were assessed for postoperative pain, wound healing, postpartum depression, anxiety, sleep quality and newborn maternal bonding. Results There was a significant increase in frequencies of breastfeeding and the body weight at 12 weeks’ postnatal age and also an increase in sleep hours in the infants who had SSC. The mothers who performed SSC had good sleep quality in comparison with those who performed the usual infant care; in addition, they had less postoperative pain intensity and proper wound healing apart from better maternal–infant bond, decreased anxiety and decreased depression frequency. Conclusion SSC was associated with better infant breastfeeding, increased sleep hours in infants and less postpartum psychological burden in mothers.

Background A pregnancy loss (miscarriage) is defined as the spontaneous demise of a pregnancy before the fetus reaches viability. The term therefore includes all pregnancy losses (PLs) from the time of conception until 24 weeks of gestation. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine system disorder among women in which levels of the sex hormones are disrupted. Hyperhomocysteinemia has been associated with clinical vascular thrombosis, and this could be the cause for early decidual and chorionic vessel damage that might result in disturbed implantation of the conceptus. Objective To determine the plasma homocysteine levels in patients with PCOS having recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) compared with women with PCOS without RPL. Patients and methods This is a case–control study on 30 women with PCOS with RPL and 30 control women with PCOS without RPL. Plasma homocysteine levels were assessed from February 2019 to February 2020 at Al Zahraa University Hospital. Results There was a significant increase in the mean homocysteine level in the case group (20.14±3.21) compared with controls (9.01±2.24) (P=0.001), with odds ratio=2.193 (confidence interval 0.171–23.294) by homocysteine through cut-off more than 12 mmol/l. Conclusion Risk of RPL in patients with PCOS is increased with hyperhomocysteinemia (P<0.001).