How important is immediate contact after birth?

[cherry22]

I think bonding with your baby will come wether you have skin to skin or not, and i think it depends massively on circumstances.

My first son was a natural birth he was placed skin to skin straight away and stayed there for hours i didnt feel the rush of love like people say you do! The whole night i sat and watched him feeling numb like he was'nt mine, he was taken the next day to SCBU and i couldnt hold him for 2days after that. My love and bond for him grew and grew he is now 2 and our bond is unbreakable.

my second son was born via EMCS and was taken straight away i didnt even see him (due to prematurity and on deaths door) Ive been serverly traumatised by what happend i didnt hold him for 2days and when i did it wasnt skin to skin as he had tubes and wires coming out of everywear but something chemical inside me happend and i felt instantly bonded to him but i didnt feel eny real emoitions towards him but i think thats down to trauma!

So i think skin to skin is an amazing thing but i dont believe it has to happen straight after birth!

 

[rjm09]

I was given my son after about an hour after C. DH was with him since pulled.

We tried bf, he latched and sucked right from the hospital,but I didn't produce. We ended up having to ff.

DH was with him that whole first hour he was away from me, and at over 3 yrs old, he is more a mommas boy!! Even though mommy's the bad guy" more when it comes to discipline,he seems to listen better to me, and comes to me to play more than dh...i mean not that he doesn't love his daddy, mommy just gets sillier when it comes to playing with toys I'm a big kid still!

I don't think the skin to skin right after affects bonding.

 

[JessPape]

I held and nursed my daughter when being stitched up, with the help of my husband, and a nurse. There is NO reason why you should not be able to have contact during the recover/sitching of the c-section, unless something goes wrong of course. I also had this in my birth plan and spoke with the doctor before preforming surgery, so they knew what I wanted.

 

[c1403]

I think its probably best to be handed your baby right away after birth but I dont think its vital.

My little girl was born by EMCS and after her birth I caught a very bad infection and even went back to theatre. It was 24 hours before I got to hold her, I could see her as my OH had her but I couldnt touch her and I was in and out of conciousness (sp)...it was horrible.
Once I was better and I finally held her the bond was there, and now 8 weeks later were doing just fine (apart from refulx )

Its a real shame I couldn't have that first immediate contact but I was more concerned about me getting better (I was very ill and nearly didnt make it had it not been for the drs and going on high dependancy). We now have plenty of time for cuddles to make up for it

xx

 

[Itsychik]

I had an EMCS and mt DS wasn't breathing so once he was born I didn't even get to see him and they rushed him into the next room (with my DH) where they gave him oxygen, etc. Eventually he was wrapped up and after a relatively short time (about 15 minutes) my DH brought him out to show me. But by that time I had started shaking really badly (doctor said it was a combination of the adrenaline, the morphine, and the blood loss) and that lasted for several hours afterwards. They took my DS to the neonatal unit and about 3 hours later I was brought up to see him and only then did I get to hold him and try bf'ing (DS didn't have much interest) and then I got to see him again the next morning.

I would have loved to have skin-to-skin immediately after the birth (gore and all ) but I didn't have any regrets and DS and I bonded just fine (I had a low milk supply so we eventually ended up combi-feeding, but I continued bf'ing until LO was 8 months old).

Whenever we have our second, I am hoping for a VBAC and I would love to have skin-to-skin and try bf'ing immediately. But I don't think it will hurt our relationship if we don't.

 

[Islander]

i didnt hold ella exactly but she was placed on me and travelled up to our room next to me, tucked into my arm...

 

[stephalie]

I really appreciate this thread, because I wonder about it sometimes. After wanting to be as natural as possible my sons birth was the absolute opposite. I had to have an emergency c-section after my placenta burst and he was born with a fever so I wasn't able to see him for four hours. I was just crying in the dark recovery room wishing I could see him. I don't know that it really mattered that much, because we have a great relationship now, granted he is only 2 months. He got hooked on a nipple shield so I'm not sure if I can't breast feed at the breast because of that or because of the lack of immediate contact, but I am pumping exclusively so at least he is getting it still.

 

[Abz1982]

Hmm, I had an emergency c-sec. I didnt hold DD as I lost so much blood and passed out. But once they stopped that and I woke up and they took me out, I held on to DD for the next few hours, had her under my gown with just her nappy on. I only then put her in the crib when they wheeled us up stairs.
But even then, she was such a peaceful baby, hardly a peep that I didnt pick her up too much, I just let he sleep - that and it was hard when I wasnt meant to get out of bed to get to her.

 

[Jarenk]

I had an emcs with my 4 year old. The nurses said I couldn't have my ds until a few hours, asking a how many hours is that, I was told about 6. I said oh hell no, I am going to be exclusively breast feeding and he is to have nothing else but my milk. If his blood sugar drops, you may give him sugar water, but nothing else. After I was released from the recovery room, a nurse brought ds to me. I kept him on my bare skin for about three hours and he was so calm and so relaxed. I felt his tension ease away as we spent skin on skin time. I believe it to be important in soothing their exit from their nice warm womb.

 

[Olivermsmummy]

I don't think it is vital for skin to skin, I never had it with either of my sons (same names as op's sons ) ds1 as I had a 3rd degree tear and substantial blood loss which had to be rectified so dh had ds1 for 3 hours and LO was also handed to dh straight away while I was having further surgery carried out. My boys and I love each other completely and it has never affected our bond x

 

[helena]

I got to kiss and touch my boys for a minute, not hold, before they were whizzed off and I was closed up. I thought it was fine, baby was snuggled up in daddy's shirt. Special time for them. He never left them. Fine by me. My first was still a mega mummy's boy. An both were snuffling for the boob happily when i came to them 4 mins later.

I my have felt different if I hadn't kissed them first.