I am an older doula who is having a hard time trying to convince hospital staff that mothers and babies should have skin to skin immediately and uninterrupted for an hour or so after birth. Some nurses and doctors are great with this but they are in the minority. My efforts to talk about it with nurses leaves me with the emotional equivalent of having a door slammed in my face.

I have been working on developing a handout for parents that is fast and easy to read that would convince them that the research is real. I want to convince them that they can delay learning what the baby weighs and delay calling relatives about the birth until after that first hour.  I am finding this a harder handout to develop than others I have done over the years. 

 I talk about skin to skin and the many advantages a lot with my clients ahead of time. They all seem like they want that advantage but when the time comes, a nurse often says, "Let me just take the baby for a minute to _______(fill in the blank with just about anything)."  And then the baby is handed over by the mother who is still feeling dazed by the birth. 

Does anyone have a great handout already prepared? I would be thrilled to see it.

Thirdgirl2000

No handout, but maybe some information from CIMS may help

http://www.motherfriendly.org/downloads.php

maria.

Maria,

I have spent a lot of time on the internet looking for such a handout. It is just not out there or it is very well hidden. It seems a lot of people do not understand the facts as found by a ton of research.  The facts are:

1. The healthy newborn should be placed immediately on its mother's abdomen. Baby can be dried and then the two of them covered over with a warm blanket of some sort. Normal weighing and measuring prevents the positive results.
2. The infant should be placed belly to belly and skin to skin. The baby should not be taken away even for a minute to do anything unless as a lifesaving measure. The unmedicated baby will find its mothers nipple usually in about 20 minutes.( I have even seen a baby I would have thought fairly drugged find its mothers nipple and latch in under 10 minutes.)
3. The baby should be given a chance to crawl and latch on its own. This behavior may set a precedent for a successful nursing experience in the days and even months to come.
4. This immediate and continuous contact leads to a better control of body temperature and glucose levels in the infant. The infant will even cry less. Do babies need their mothers?  What do you think!
5. The mothers display more affectionate behavior toward their infant which can last for at least a year and newer long term studies are beginning to show an even longer effect of 4+ years.
6. Mothers are more satisfied with their care.

Now, how to put this together with encouraging parents to be ready to wait to hear baby's weight and length! All in an attractive, easily readable, engaging and clear fashion. 

Thanks a bunch, ladies!

-- Henci

Pull up the video at www.birthcrawl.org. It's only a few minutes long and shows a baby working it's way to it's mother's breast unassisted. The narration also describes the physiological effects of baby's kicking motions on mom's belly for helping with uterine involution. It is from India I believe so the narrator's voice is very heavily accented English, but it's a fantastic video that's helps to demonstrate the many benefits of skin-to-skin.

This is fabulous! It couldn't make it more clear. Would it be possible to give the specific source so others can get a copy of the full document you are quoting? Even better, if it can be accessed online, would you please give the URL?

-- Henci