Skin to Skin Minutes After C/S in the OR… Speaking Up and Making it Happen

Submitted for the Healthy Birth Blog Carnival #6: MotherBaby Edition

Skin to Skin immediately after birth is an extremely important part of the continuum of the nurturing of pregnancy, the process of birth and the transition of nurturing from inside mom to outside mom. This is the natural habitat where baby should transition and begin his own regulations of breathing, heart rate, temperature etc… This is recognized by the AAP in their changes to the Neonatal Resuscitation Algorithm back in 2000. The recommendation was to keep baby with mom and provide all initial evaluations and steps with baby on moms chest for all healthy babies! We all know that babies have an inborn innate ability to self attach and nurse right after birth. These recommendations are not just for vaginal births. Kathy Petersen has a beautiful description of the importance of STS after a Cesarean birth on her Woman to Woman Childbirth Education blog in her 5/30/10 post Skin-to-Skin in the O.R. after a C-section.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Breast Is Best Video

This is a great video about breastfeeding, especially breastfeeding after a cesarean.

Implementing Skin to Skin in a Hospital

Alethea, a labor & delivery nurse in a small community hospital, wrote this guest post about how to implement skin-to-skin in a hospital. Sometimes a big change in policy starts with just one nurse's efforts!

If you would like to get in touch with Alethea, please leave your email address in the comments or send me an email, which I will forward on to her. She is more than happy to answer your questions.

As expectant mothers near the end of pregnancy, they begin to prepare themselves mentally and physically for the upcoming birth of their baby. While imagining what labor and birth might be like for them, they often daydream about holding their baby in their arms for the first time, immediately after birth. It is instinctive for new mothers to want to hold their babies close, nourish them, and keep them safe and warm.

To read the rest of this article click here