All of your hard work during labor has finally paid off. You hear the first cry from your newborn baby and it is the most perfect moment of your existence. Many new mothers do not know about the importance of skin to skin contact during the first hours after birth and often find themselves caught up in rigid hospital routines that enable nurses to whisk their newborn babies away to a nursery. Weighing the baby and giving medications can be postponed until after the first hour and an assessment to make sure baby is doing well can be performed with the baby on your chest. Baby can also be placed skin to skin with the mother during a cesarean section or on the father chest if the mother is unable. Placing your baby on your chest immediately after birth (also called Kangaroo care) is proven to have many benefits for both mom and baby. Most experts recommend keeping baby skin to skin with you for at least 1 hour. Skin to skin care helps to:
- Stabilize your new baby's temperature, heart rate, and blood sugar which are very important for newborns
- Make latching on to the breast easier for breastfeeding because baby is most awake during the first hour.
- Studies show that babies held skin to skin at birth breastfeed more months after going home
- Your baby may cry less and be soothed by the smell of your skin
- Promotes bonding
- Stimulates the uterus to contract with the release of oxytocin helping you to have less vaginal bleeding
- Helps distract you from pain if you will need stitches
- Placing your baby skin to skin during breastfeeding also helps to stimulate milk production
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