Christine,
I chuckled when you noted "they think =
mom=20
would not want to hold baby while being sutured, ect."

I was just at a birth where dad was holding baby for a moment - when the doc
started to suture. he asked the dad to please give the baby back to the
mother. We find that moms are SO interested in the baby that they don't
comment or make many faces about the suturing. (No comments please - we have
less than a 15% episiotomy rate and they are usually suturing first or
second degree lacerations if anything)

As to doing it all "perfectly" - we are human beings! Any skin to skin is
better than none, and if you start with some and the nurses see how much
baby and mom love it, they make like to offer and help even more often. As
to assessments (and meds) - most of them are easily done in mom's arms. At
some point someone says, 'How much does this baby weigh, anyway?"  and you
have a natural time to do the other things you need to do for admission.

Hope you all enjoy implementing skin to skin!

Dawn Kersula in Vermont (where we are still working on it)

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