There are few things more irresistibly touchable than a baby’s skin, and perhaps that’s nature’s way of enticing us into a critical connection that improves baby’s health and promotes bonding.
When babies are welcomed to mama’s bare breast immediately after birth, they warm to the perfect temperature much better than on a warming table, they calm more quickly into the quiet alert state where bonding continues to happen, and breast feeding can begin more organically as baby smells mama’s familiar scent and becomes interested in the nipple.
While the immediate benefits of skin-to-skin contact are amazing, they don’t stop there! As baby grows, skin-to-skin continues to promote bonding, calming, improved immune function and other health benefits.
If all of that wasn’t enough, skin-to-skin can even save a baby’s life. In the video below, mum Katie Ogg shares the beautiful story of how skin-to-skin changed tragedy to triumph.
Come on back next week as we dance into labor!