Skin to skin contact in delivery room needed for breast feeding

You’re committed to breast feeding…… because it will be

good for your body chemistry and
great for the body chemistry of your little one

The catch, more and more newborns opt not to, even when Mom wants to.

Researchers where curious, why are newborns turning up their noses to Mother Nature’s perfect provision.

Breastfeeding is do or die

In nature.

Only human babies have a plan B – formula.

But the human birthing process is rather unnatural. Humans are the only mammals that routinely separate mothers and infants, in the first few days of life. The mother-baby dyad is meant to be together.

Is this what is causing newborns to opt out of breast feeding ?

Separate development

The reseachers sifted through electronic medical records of healthy babies, born in a New York hospital, looking for clues. The data from 150 newborns was included in their review.

The study authors looked at the usual information gathered in these kinds of studies

How old was the mother
How “old” was the baby
How did baby come
What kind of shape was Mom in, at the time of delivery

And….. did Mom and baby make contact in the delivery room. A cursory introduction to the new son or daughter, did not qualify as CONTACT. Contact needed to be physical – SKIN-on-SKIN.

All of this info was correlated, with the number of formula feedings received by the baby, before discharge.

Breastfeeding tally

The majority of women (72 %) went in, PLANNING to breast feed. I do think it is sad that so many women did not DECIDE to – ignorance or vanity ?

But only 28 % of babies left the hospital as exclusively breast fed babes.

So a whole lot of babies – said NO thanks to breast milk and all the special friends, associated with Mother Nature’s perfect formula.

Skin to skin contact

About half the babies (53 %) touched skins with Mom, in the delivery room. So skin touching in delivery rooms does happen, but it doesn’t always happen for healthy babies.

When the statistical analysis was run….all other things being equal, the babies with skin contact were more likely to be, breast feeders.

The delivery room experience is impacting newborn behaviour.

The jackpot

From a body chemistry perspective, being breast fed is like hitting the jackpot. Babies who miss out, typically go through life with a distinct disadvantage. They’re at risk of obesity, behavioural problems (such as autism and ADHD) and allergies.

Winning the jackpot is by its very nature a game of chance, just because you’re holding a ticket, doesn’t mean you’ll win. Skin-to-skin contact in the delivery room doesn’t guarantee you will be breastfeeding exclusively, but it increases the odds.

Stack the odds in your favour…

Make sure the team delivering your baby know that you want skin in the game.