Benefits of Skin to Skin Contact After Birth
I am sure you have heard about the glorious moment of doing skin to skin right after birth, but why is it done and why is routine newborn assessments delayed?
What is skin to skin contact?
Skin to skin ideally happens right after baby is born where this sweet blessing is placed on the mothers bare chest, chest to chest. Baby is covered by a warm blanket and a cap maybe placed over your babies head to keep heat in. Baby will remain there undisturbed for at least an hour. Its also suggested to continue doing this for days and weeks after the birth to promote bonding, establishing breastfeeding and regulating body temperatures.
Holding baby skin to skin has now become routine care in most hospitals whether you have a vaginal or cesarean birth as well as birth centers and homebirths. Ask your doctor or midwife if this has become standard care at your birthing facility. This should also be added into your birthing plan.
Benefits of Skin to Skin Contact
Greater Breastfeeding Success
Babies come with a short-term heightened sense of smell. This enables your little one to sniff out his/her first meal. When placed on mom’s bare chest, baby will instinctively crawl towards the nipple and begin exploring the breast and nipple to breastfeed. You may hear your birth team saying your child is doing the “breast crawl”. The touch and warmth of your baby also simulates the production of the hormones that release breast milk resulting in an early breastfeeding start to success. This is why days and weeks after birth skin to skin is still encouraged.
More Stable & Healthier Baby/Mom
The Lord created our bodies to sustain our babies in ever aspect! Skin to skin contact stabilizes your baby’s rapidly changing body in the short hours following birth. This helps them adapt to life outside the womb. One amazing thing that skin to skin does is helps with the respiratory and heart rate by making it less erratic. Other fascinating facts is the babies blood pH levels are more favorable, blood glucose levels are higher and baby experiences better temperature regulation.
Skin to skin contact has been found to lower mom’s stress levels, improve bonding and attachment and lower risk of bleeding and postpartum hemorrhage as well as better pain control.
All of these major health benefits are done by just simply loving and hugging on your precious blessing. Enjoy and savior these skin to skin moments as long as you can <3
References:
Evidenced Based Birth
Photo credit (c) Family Photography by Leslie