Skin to skin
And what about the microbiome?
Babies seed their microbiome through
1) Vaginal birth
2) Skin to skin
And breastfeeding then feeds the microbiome.
This process kickstarts the baby's immune system and helps to protect the infant from disease for its entire lifetime **
But don’t panic if vaginal birth didn’t happen for you-all the more reason for skin to skin contact.
Your newborn is so neurologically immature that they cannot actually regulate their body temperature, heart-rate or breathing without being in your presence*.
Many parents are familiar with “the golden hour” immediately after birth and understand the importance of skin-to-skin at that stage.
But really skin to skin in the early days should be as much as possible day and night (see my blog on sleep re bed-sharing)
Here's some info from UNICEF about babies needing to be skin-to-skin in the early days:
* Calms and relaxes both mother and baby
* Regulates the baby’s heart rate and breathing, helping them to better adapt to life outside the womb
* Stimulates digestion and an interest in feeding
* Regulates temperature
* Enables colonisation of the baby’s skin with the mother’s friendly bacteria, thus providing protection against infection
* Stimulates the release of hormones to support breastfeeding and mothering.
And a page from NCT about the "fourth trimester" here.
Would you would like me to visit you at home to support breastfeeding your newborn? Please see the home visits info (here).
Sally