Skin to skin

Once baby is born, the midwife (or you!) will bring baby up to your abdomen or chest depending on the length of baby’s cord. Baby will be gently dried whilst on you and a warm layer will be placed over the top of you and your baby. We aim to keep baby skin to skin with you for at least an hour or as long as you like. Skin to skin has many benefits to you and baby:

• Calming for both baby and mother
• Helps to regulate baby’s temperature
• Enhances the bonding process
• Helps to regulate baby’s breathing and heart rate
• Helps activate baby’s digestive system and encourage the first feed
• Aids the colonisation of baby’s skin by being exposed to mother’s bacterial flora, therefore aiding in building their immune system
• Helps mother release hormones to help with initiation of breastfeeding

The majority of babies will go through a natural process within the first hour if kept skin to skin with their mother.  This is often referred to as the golden hour. The process is as follows:

• Initial cry after birth
• Enter a state of relaxation where they may not move very much
• Begin to wake up, open their eyes and respond to their mother’s voice
• Begin to make small movements with their arms, shoulders and head and then start to move their knees and legs up in a crawling type motion to find the breast
• Once they find the breast they may appear to relax again, this is sometimes interrupted as the baby not wanting to feed
• The baby will then begin to nuzzle around the breast, turning their head and licking. This is all to familiarise themselves with the breast.  It is tempting to help baby at this point, but it is best if baby finds the breast by themselves
• Baby attaches to the breast
• Baby will then come away from the breast and usually sleep

This process may not be evident if the mother has had a lot of analgesia during the birth or if the process is interrupted through weighing or observations of the baby.  Skin to skin can continue if the mother requires sutures (stitches) after the birth as long as the mother feels comfortable and safe to do so.

Please see this UNICEF information for more details and a video.

Skin-to-skin contact - Baby Friendly Initiative (unicef.org.uk)