When babies are born they’re immediately exposed to what will feel like cold air as compared to your warm and cozy womb. Nurses will quickly dry your baby’s skin, wrap baby in warm blankets, and place baby skin-to-skin on your bare chest. Did you know that placing baby straight onto your bare chest helps baby stabilize their breathing, hold a steady body temperature, and prepare for their first nursing session?
As baby transitions to life outside of your womb, three important things you can do to help baby adapt are:
- Baby stays warm against your bare chest with a blanket laid over them
- Baby cries to clear their lungs
- Baby starts to nurse at your breast to satisfy their hunger
Go Skin-to-Skin at Baby’s Birth
The best place for your baby to help maintain an ideal temperature is laying on your bare chest covered with a warmed blanket. The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) recommends skin-to-skin contact for all healthy newborns immediately after birth through the first hour of life.
Researchers have found that babies placed skin-to-skin soon after birth maintain better body temperature and require fewer exams and needed treatments.
Your nurse will help guide you and baby during skin-to-skin care. They’ll help you get into a comfortable position for nursing, and ensure baby’s nose isn’t covered or blocked, their neck is in a good position, and that baby’s legs are curled into their body.
Benefits of Early Skin-to-Skin Bonding
Early skin-to-skin bonding and breastfeeding have many benefits for you and your baby:
- Supports successfully starting nursing right after baby’s birth
- Stimulates your baby’s sense of smell and helps baby find your breast to begin taking in colostrum before your milk comes in
- Increases emotional and physical attachment between you and baby
- Helps provide baby with longer sleep cycles and quiet times when baby is alert
- Stimulates oxytocin, a hormone in your body that starts the birth process, and keeps you from bleeding too much after birth
Delayed Bath
AWHONN and the National Association of Neonatal Nurses recommend waiting 8-24 hours before bathing your baby. A delay in bathing for the first 24 hours has a positive effect on your baby’s ability to maintain their temperature and energy on their own.
After baby’s first bath, they should be immediately dried and placed skin-to-skin on your chest with you both covered by a warm blanket. Or, as desired, baby can be dressed and wrapped in a warm blanket as you cuddle in recovery. Your heart will be filled with emotions as you spend those first precious moments together.
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