KEEP UP KANGAROO CARE

Don’t stop once you get home. Continuing skin to skin will continue to deliver benefits. “Human babies thrive on frequent and prolonged skin-to-skin contact for many weeks after birth,” says Erica Neser, an international board certified lactation consultant based in Stellenbosch. It can be especially healing if you did not have the birth you envisioned. Michelle Walton, a therapeutic reflexologist, points out that all the initial benefits of skin to skin – regulated breathing and stabilised body temperature, heart rate and blood sugar, and a calmer baby – continue at home. “Skin to skin also ensures your milk production remains adequate for Baby’s needs. And it aids the release of the ‘love hormone’ oxytocin, which helps ward off postnatal depression and helps you and Baby sleep better.”