Just wanted to share a small victory in skin to skin.  I was attending a
birth last week.  Baby was born, taken to the warmer, weighed, measured,
vitamin K shot, eye ointment.  Baby was then swaddled so that you could only
see the little guy's face and handed back to mom so that she could
breastfeed.  Nurse kept baby all swaddled, only unsnapped one side of mom's
gown - basically all that was exposed was one breast and baby's face.

Well, as soon as the nurse left the room, I asked mom if she'd like to put
the baby on her skin instead, to which she said yes.  I unwrapped the baby,
unsnapped everything mom had on, and tucked baby in with mom, completely
skin to skin.   Baby did not latch, but did a lot of nuzzling and was
perfectly peaceful.

A few minutes later, the power went off at the hospital.  The med tech came
in to do another assessment of the baby, and then the nursery nurse came in.
She asked how the baby was doing, and then said, "Oh, I'm sure he's cold,
isn't he, because the warmer didn't have power and mom was holding him."
And, music to my ears, the tech said, "No, he is perfectly warm - 100
degrees, in fact.  Mama did a great job holding that baby on her skin and
keeping him warm."

What did mothers and babies ever do before there were baby warmers?


Jennifer B. Davis, ICCE-CD, CD(DONA)
Exec. Director, Triangle Birth Network, Inc..
www.trianglebirthnetwork.org

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