Skin to Skin, Why is it so important?!

You should always try to start within the first hour of birth so you can learn to recognize feeding cues for your baby as long as there have been no complications!

Skin to skim calms you and baby.

• Helps baby cry less.

• Releases hormones that relieve stress and stabilize baby's temperature, breathing rate, heart rate, and blood sugar levels.

• Releases a hormone that lowers mum and babies stress levels and promotes healing for mothers.

• Promotes bonding.

• Allows time for baby to play out normal behavior after birth “breast crawl” which can help baby to self latch to breast feed.

• Helps to increase mum’s milk supply because it stimulates prolactin and oxytocin, both of which help your body to make and release breast milk.

• Boosts baby's immune system and protects against illness and disease.

• Helps baby gain weight faster.

• Helps mothers breastfeed longer by building her milk supply.

• Lowers mother's risk of postnatal depression.

Skin to skin never ends throughout your breastfeeding journey! This is something that both you and dad can do together!