How important is immediate contact after birth?

[Liesje]

Just thinking out loud here... this whole concept that babies are handed to us after birth and never removed from our hospital rooms is relatively new. I remember when most of us were born, babies were kept in the hospital nursery and it was the norm for babies to be away from their mothers unless being fed. My grandfather who is a doctor told me this was for health reasons so babies could be kept in a sterile environment for their first week and wouldn't be exposed to visitors' germs and also so the mothers could rest.
C-section moms seem to be heartbroken that they've somehow damaged their bond by not being able to hold their baby immediately but does it even matter to our babies?

 

[Charlie5]

I don't think so personally, they are knackered and just sleep anyway!!

With both my sons they were not immediately placed on me (both were emergencies in theatre) and it has made no difference at all to us - I love them both and have no bond issues at all - to me skin to skin and all that is just not important bond-wise, bond is there immediately no matter whether I had them straight away or after they were checked over.

 

[Monkey monkey]

I had a section under general so had to wait a little while for cuddles with my baby boy after birth and i was fine

 

[LittlePeople]

I got to hold DD1 straight after she was born!

I don't personally think that lack of contact straight away damages 'a bond'

 

[lilbecksxx]

I got to hold my son around an hour after my section (emergency & they put me under). I dont think it damaged our bond - I struggled with baby blues which stopped our bond, but now thats gone, he is the love of my life!

 

[Luzelle]

Before my babie's birth, I researched this topic, after natural birth, and felt very strongly about having skin to skin contact, delayed cord clamping, natural 3rd stage etc.
I turned out needing an emcs, and had to wait more than an hour before seeing him, anyway then I was off my head on pain killers lol. In that time he had heaps of skin to skin contact with his dad, and tried to nurse from him! Amazing how strong they are. I wannted NO pain meds and ended up having a truckload, and he was still alert etc.
I had no problems bonding with him at all, even though I was groggy etc. one of my friends had a natural birth, and struggled with bonding - I think it is a random thing. She now loves her little girl to bits.

 

[youngwife20]

I feel that it does effect things, for me i felt after wanting skin to skin etc i didnt get the birth i wanted i was happy my baby was born healthy but all i wanted was to be able to hug or touch my daughter. it was a scary experiance n i felt so ditached from it all. breastfeeding wasnt easy because we didnt get to try it when she was born so for many reasons i ended up pumping for her for 6 months whos to say tht wouldnt have happened anyway. but i think more for the mother its sad not to be able to hold your child.it was for me. i wasnt so off on meds and i completly knew what was happening at tht time my baby was fine so i could have done skin to skin but they wouldnt agree x

 

[honeybee2]

When Louie was born, he was taken to be cleaned first and then handed to my husband. When I came out of the theatre and put onto a proper bed, he was then handed to me. So about 25 minutes old. I was gutted but to be honest, I didnt even think about it as the end of my labour was incredibly traumatic and I just wanted him out! BUT, he was put straight to the breast and was for two weeks so we did have skin to skin.

 

[babybambi2011]

i have to disagree, i had an emcs with my first and i didnt get to hold her until an hour n half after she was born. i tried breastfeeding for 3 n half weeks and i feel that if id had immediate skin to skin, there might of been more of a chance for us. i was a student midwfie and i know that from day 1 skin to skin asap was drilled into us! if the baby breastfeeds within the first hour of delivery, there are so many benefits, not to mention more sucessful at long term breastfeeding.
ive put in my birth plan that i want skin to skin while im being stitched up. i have 40 mins of time to spare where i cant move, and i dont see why i cant be bonding with my new baby during this. for me, its the most important point on my plan. as long as there is nothing wrong with her, she is being put on my tummy after a rub down so we can have some time together. she wont be leaving my chest at all! well, nappy changes but thats it. im gunna be topless for a while haha

 

[mommytobe11]

While I was pregnant I really wasn't even sure how I felt about skin to skin. But then after a crazy failed induction and a csection under general anestesia, I got into my room after about an hour still drugged up and they made me do skin to skin. I'm so greatful for that time. He felt like a stranger because all of a sudden, he was just there. One minute I was pregnant, then I woke up and I wasn't.

That bonding time was important for me

 

[tish76]

I think like lots of things, immediate skin to skin contact with your baby is ideal, but I believe you deal with the hand you're dealt and not getting that immediate contact needn't be an issue.
My, now beautifully healthy and perfect, 28 month old son was born by emcs under general anesthesia and was in extremely bad shape upon delivery. Because he had suffered birth asphyxia the doctors made the decision to cool him for 72hours - it is believed that by lowering body temp you slow blood flow to the brain and help minimize damage. Anyway as a consequence I didn't get to hold my son until day 5 after his birth, and as he was initially fed on a sucrose solution exclusively, I expressed to bring on my supply until they deemed him ready for me to have a crack at breast feeding on about day 9.
Whilst it was a totally rotten start to motherhood I can honestly say that it had no damaging effect on our ability to bond as mother and son, and I went on to successfully breastfed him for 21 months!
That said, I would love nothing more than the opportunity to hold this baby as soon as she is born - fingers crossed x

 

[bcockcroft]

Yeah I absolutely agree with you 100%

 

[Vanilla77]

I had an emergency c section as I was I'll. I didn't even get to see my dd for 48hrs as she was wired up in nnu and couldn't come to me and I was wired up and couldn't go to her. I was really worried about bonding. The nurses brought me pictures but I felt nothing when I looked at them and didn't feel like the baby was mine. However the first time I saw her in I just got huge wave of emotion and connected striaght away.
DD and I are very close. She's a real mummy's girl and we already gang up on daddy together.
Don't worry about delayed contact and bonding. I believe mother and child share a special connection that can't be broken by separation

 

[17thy]

Although ive never had a section, I think its EXTREMELY important for you to have immediate contact with your baby. It has impact on your milk, your bonding hormones, everything.... They put my daughter on me immediately, but took her away very quickly too and we didn't have much bonding time immediately, our breastfeeding failed.

My son, my husband and I birthed ourselves, and he was instantly on my chest, feeding. And stayed skin to skin with me for a couple hours. He is doing amazing breastfeeding and is the calmest baby...

Skin to skin is important even after the first moments...

 

[Liesje]

My mom told me the exact opposite, she didn't understand what my fascination with "this skin to skin hocus pocus" was lol
She had a traumatic labor, was put under after I was born and didn't see me until the next day, she had no issues with milk or breastfeeding. Her mother was the same way, breastfed 11 kids with no issue. I had immediate contact, tried my hardest and still had a lot of trouble with milk production.

 

[MommyNikki]

Personally, Ive watched on some baby shows where they pull the baby out of her V and put the baby on top of her with blood and gross stuff still all over the baby...

now in my situation....

I had a c-section, they cleaned the baby up, did all the stuff they needed to do, wrapped my LO up and got her nice and warm and they put her in my arms....

I think that was a better bonding experience for me.

Everyone is different!

 

[Liesje]

Me too, when I got my baby he had a blanket thrown around him and didn't have any white stuff on him, but I could feel he was a little wet still... I felt like such a horrible person but I felt so gross touching the slime! lol I wish they cleaned him up a bit better.

 

[MommyNikki]

Yea---I appreciated them cleaning both my kids up instead of handing them looking like something out of Ghost Busters LMAO

 

[Annie77]

I appreciate why the original poster asked this question and have been interested to read the replies but here is my rant -
I am personally sick fed up of hearing about how important issues such as skin to skin, breast feeding, immediate contact, baby wearing vs buggies, routines vs baby led etc etc.
What creates a healthy bond between a mother and baby is a mother who is supported by her care givers and (very importantly) other mothers in choosing what she wants to do. Being made to feel you are failing by not breast feeding, having skin to skin or choosing to use a buggy as opposed to baby sling is what can cause poor bonding with babies as quie frankly so many mums are feeling like they are doing wrong.

Whilst I work in health care, my gut instinct is to ignore research and go with what feels right for my family, my baby and myself - as opposed to following whatever parenting trend is currently 'in'.

 

[jcorinne]

I was in labor for 46 hours with my first DS. He was in distress and I had to have an EMCS. Once they took him out they cleaned him up and let my husband hold him and bring him for me to look at for a minute. I got to kiss him and stroke his cheek but did not get to hold him. When they started to pull the placenta out I could feel it. The pain was so horrible it made me start vomiting immediately. At that point they put me under. I don't even remember going back to my room but my husband said they brought the baby and asked if I wanted him. I told them no they could keep him in the nursery lol. Like I said I don't even remember that but I had been in labor for almost 2 years and then under anesthesia. Anyway they didn't bring him back for about 3 hours when they brought him they said he was hungry. I was so exhausted. I breastfed him but we did not have any skin to skin contact. I barely remember anything for the first probably 12 hours after the section, they had me on heavy pain meds. There was no problem with our bonding though. My son bf like a champ! He bf for the first year actually. My milk only took about 4 days to come in which is normal from what I understand. We were very bonded from the time in the hospital and even now at almost 4 years old he is very much a momma's boy