Skin to Skin Contact – How getting your shirt off can help with bonding, breastfeeding and improving your baby’s health!

If you are experiencing any form of breastfeeding challenges or periods of breast refusal, no matter the age of your baby – take both of your shirts off (and your Bra!) and try some Skin to Skin!

Skin to Skin (also known as Kangaroo Mother Care) is when you lay your baby with their bare skin, against your bare skin. Of course, they can wear a nappy for this – it will be cleaner if they do!

It is really helpful over the first weeks of life (and beyond) to spend as much time as possible doing this with your baby, because it helps them by:

  • Stabilising their Heart Rate, Breathing Rate, Temperature and Blood Sugar Levels.
  • Comforting them, as they can hear your heartbeat and smell you.
  • Encouraging baby to use their feeding reflexes – this helps familiarise them with your breasts and may end with them latching for a breastfeed.
  • Enabling free and easy access of the baby to your breast may help build your milk supply.
  • Stimulating the release of oxytocin, which helps you to calm and bond with baby.
  • Being a form of Tummy Time, which builds baby’s core, neck and shoulder strength in preparation for rolling – one of their next Motor Milestones!

During periods of Skin to Skin, you may even notice your baby doing the Breast Crawl, as demonstrated in this video from Lucy Webber (IBCLC).

Babies have the instincts to seek out their first breastfeed and when left in uninterrupted skin to skin contact, they are more likely to find the breast on their own! This is why I recommend families who are experiencing challenges with feeding, such as breast refusal and transitioning from bottle to breast, spend time Skin to Skin with their baby. You can even do this in the bath!

If you and your baby are well after birth, your baby should be placed on your bare chest immediately, with skin to skin being uninterrupted for as long as possible. Ask your midwife to support you with this. Unforeseen circumstances can happen during and after birth, and in the unfortunate event you and your baby become separated, begin skin to skin contact as soon as you are reunited.

If you are feeling tired or unwell, your support person can supervise you with your baby, or with your permission, they can take their shirt off and have baby on their chest for Skin to Skin contact.

If you would like more information on the benefits of Skin to Skin and information on The Breast Crawl, see the below references.

If you are having any breastfeeding challenges that you feel you need support with, you can book an appointment here or feel free to contact me with any questions by visiting my contact page: Contact – Rainbow Road Lactation

References

Moore, E. R., Bergman, N., Anderson, G. C., & Medley, N. (2016). Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (11), CD003519. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub4


Widström, A., Brimdyr, K., Svensson, K., Cadwell, K., & Nissen, E. (2020). A plausible pathway of imprinted behaviors: Skin-to-skin actions of the newborn immediately after birth follow the order of fetal development and intrauterine training of movements. Medical Hypotheses, 134, 109432.

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