Cindy, My husband is an ambulance paramedic and just yesterday had a baby born at home to transport to hospital. Baby was crying when they arrived, he got the mum to hold the baby skin-to-skin at the breast and he just snuggled in and was calm. Didn't suckle but when they arrived at the hospital and mum took baby from the breast to cover herself up he started crying again....funny that! I think it's a good idea to give them some idea of just how to provide the skin-to-skin (ie baby upright between the breasts), that was something my husband had not thought about and the reason why the mum felt she needed to remove the baby and cover up. I'll paste in some text out of a paper I've just submitted below....there's more than temperature regulation involved (and this is just the baby, the impact on the mother is also significant). It should also be emphasised to these emergency workers that encouraging suckling is a very good idea. In fact it should be considered a medical intervention when they are in a situation where they do not have the standard medical interventions that midwives/hospitals have available. Not long ago my husband delivered a baby and suggested to the mum that she put the baby to the breast. She declined. When they arrived at the hospital the midwives wanted to know if he'd given her some syntocinin. Of course he hadn't.....they don't use it! Thus, in these situations breastfeeding should be considered a medical intervention to aid delivery of the placenta and to prevent bleeding. It's one thing to suggest to a mum that it would be nice for her to put baby top the breast, it's another thing altogether to say that it's a necessary "intervention" Karleen Gribble Australia Skin-to-skin contact between mother and child is the utmost in physical closeness. In newborns, maternal skin-to-skin contact is often facilitated via a method called kangaroo care in which the naked infant is held upright between the mother’s breasts under her clothing. In babies, skin-to-skin contact reduces stress hormone release (Mooncey, Giannakoulopouloa, Glover, Acolet & Modi 1997), reduces blood pressure (Anderson, 1989), stabilises blood glucose levels (Christensson, Siles, Moreno, Belaustequi, De La Fuente, Lagercrantz, Puyol & Winberg 1992), acts as an analgesic (Gray, Watt & Blass 2000) and aids neurobehavioural self-regulation (Ferber & Makhoul 2004). Temperature and respiration rates of babies are stabilised by skin-to-skin contact with their mother (Acolet, Sleath & Whitelaw 1989; Ludington-Hoe, Hashemi, Argote, Medellin & Rey 1991; Christensson et al. 1992). MOONCEY S, GIANNAKOULOPOULOS X, GLOVER V, ACOLET D & MODI N (1997), The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on plasma cortisol and β-endorphin concentrations in preterm newborns. Infant Behavior and Development, 20, 553-557. ANDERSON GC (1989), Risk in mother-infant separation postbirth. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 21, 196-199.CHRISTENSSON K, CABRERA T, CHRISTENSSON E, UVNAS-MOBERG K & WINBERG J (1995), Separation distress call in the human neonate in the absence of maternal body contact. Acta Paediatrica, 84, 468-473. GRAY L, WATT L & BLASS E (2000), Skin-to-skin contact is analgesic in healthy newborns. Pediatrics, 105, e14. FERBER SG, LAUDON M, KUINT J, WELLER A & ZISAPEL N (2002), Massage therapy by mothers enhances the adjustment of circadian rhythms to the nocturnal period in full-term infants. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 23, 410-415. ACOLET D, SLEATH K & WHITELAW A (1989), Oxygenation, heart rate and temperature in very low birthweight infants during skin-to-skin contact with their mothers. Acta Paediatrica Scandinavica, 78, 189-193. LUDINGTON-HOE SM, HASHEMI MS, ARGOTE LA, MEDELLIN G & REY H (1992), Selected physiologic measures and behavior during paternal skin contact with Colombian preterm infants. Journal of Developmental Physiology, 18, 223-32. > > I have been searching for an article to give to the local rescue squad that > backs up if they go out on a call and they do a delivery or the delivery has > already occurred how important it is to put baby skin to skin with mom to > maintain the babies temp. They bundle the babies and bring them to the > hospital that way and they are cold. But before they will change practice, > they need "proof" that baby would be warmer and so much better off to be > skin to skin with mom with a hat on and covered with mom. can anyone please > direct me to such an article.. Thanks! *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html