Background: Immaturity sucking ability is one of the commons problems faced by preterm infants and leads to difficult feeding. Oral stimulation is one of the interventions to enhance the infants’ sucking ability. Inconsistent evidence related to the effect of oral stimulation on the preterm infants’ sucking ability still exists. Therefore, this review was intended to appraise the quality of the articles and to analyze the effects of oral stimulation on preterm infants’ sucking ability. Methods: Systematic reviews involving published articles from 2015-2020 were used as the study design. Data were retrieved from databases CINAHL Full Text, E-Journal, MEDLINE, Pubmed Full Text, Portal Garuda, and Google Scholar. Oral stimulation, sucking, preterm infants, and sucking reflex were used as keywords. Articles selection followed PRISMA. The articles quality was assessed by two independent raters using Joanna Briggs Institute Appraisal Tool. Results: Nine articles met the selection criteria; seven articles showed good quality and two articles were moderate quality. Five articles supported that oral stimulation was effective for enhancing the preterm infants’ sucking ability. Oral stimulation can be provided by trained healthcare professionals and mothers. Conversely, four articles did not support the effect of oral stimulation on the preterm infants’ sucking ability. It happened since the control group also was provided by non-nutritive sucking that was able to enhance the sucking ability. Conclusion: Oral stimulation is effective for enhancing the preterm infants’ sucking ability. Trained healthcare professionals and trained mothers can use oral stimulation to reduce preterm infants’ feeding problems.

Keywords: preterm infants, oral stimulation, sucking reflex