In reading the posts on this thread it occurs to me that there are two important messages.
One is that there are many good reasons to respect the need of the mother and baby to be kept together from birth on.
The other is that there is no deadline for when skin contact between mother and baby must occur in order to have an effect.  Ask anyone who has been separated from their baby at birth and recovered enough to get breastfeeding started - and if you still need convincing, talk to someone who has breastfed a child adopted after infancy.

While we know that the period immediately after birth is unique in human life (and that is why we should always have a truly compelling reason to separate mothers and babies in those first hours), we also know that if the opportunity is not taken, or is not there, it is imperative that the baby and mother be reunited as soon as possible, in circumstances as similar as possible to the immediate newborn period, i.e. no clothes, no pressure, and no time limits.  

Skin to skin contact is better accomplished late than never at all.   But there is no reason to make 'late' the standard procedure, as though it doesn't matter, because it does.  When I talk to mothers who are trying to solve breastfeeding problems that arose due to early separation for medical reasons, quasi or otherwise, and start to explain that skin contact with the baby is basic to the 'treatment' for their problem, I don't wonder any more whether they will start to cry, I just wonder how many seconds it will take before they do.  If it didn't matter, it would not elicit this response in virtually ALL mothers.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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