Practices that Promote Healthy Birth: Keep Mother and Baby Together After Birth

In the first hours after your baby is born, immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact is something all hospitals, birth centers, and at-home births should be practicing. Unless of course, there is an urgent medical issue for parent or baby that requires separation. Unfortunately, this beneficial practice is not prioritized, especially in the hospital setting.

Why is it so important to keep your baby with you skin-to-skin in the first hours after birth? Newborns go through an amazing transition immediately after birth. Imagine going from a secure, dark, and quiet place, like the womb, to a new world with bright lights, noises, and new people. Your baby is not only learning to adjust to that new, intense environment, but also learning how to breathe, suck, swallow, and regulate their temperature, all for the very first time! When placed skin-to-skin, babies are able to transition more easily to the outside world. Babies who receive skin-to-skin care after birth:

• Cry less
• Have more stable temperatures
• Have more stable blood sugars (the lack of skin to skin contact with my second son, because of my cesarean, caused a change in his blood sugar which resulted in a 30-hour NICU stay)
• Breastfeed sooner, longer, and much more easily
• Are exposed to normal bacteria from their birth parent, which improves their gut flora and protects them from getting sick 
• Have lower levels of stress hormones

All of these benefits ultimately benefit parents, too!

After your immediate/uninterrupted time with baby skin-to-skin, you and your baby will be moved to a postpartum room. Most hospitals only offer "rooming in" with your baby. In the past, many hospitals encouraged and allowed parents to send their babies to the nursery. The theory was that parents could rest after a long birth. However, studies show that parents who room in with their babies get just as much sleep as those who send their babies off to the nursery. These same studies have shown that babies who go to the nursery often have more issues with breastfeeding, which can cause breastfeeding challenges. 

Be sure to discuss your preference for immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact with your care provider in advance of your birth, and again with your care provider and nursing staff upon being admitted to the hospital. 

For more information on skin-to-skin care, including images of what immediate skin-to-skin looks like, check out this video from Lamaze.

Published: June 16, 2021

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