First hour is key to breastfeeding baby

Skin to skin contact after birth boosts success rate

MOTHERS who have skin-to-skin contact with their baby within an hour of delivery are 50 per cent more likely to be breastfeeding six months later, say researchers.

Experts believe that there is a ‘golden hour’ after birth in which a baby placed on their mother’s stomach instinctively moves up her body to latch on to the breast.

This makes feeding easier from the start, while also helping a mother bond with her child.

A review of studies on skin-to-skin contact found women whose babies are put naked on their chest in their first hour breastfeed on average for 64 days longer than infants separated from their mothers in a cot or incubator.

Babies who experience this are also less stressed, with more stable heart and breathing rates. Lead author Elizabeth Moore, from Vanderbilt University in the US, said a newborn baby uses their sense of smell to latch on to breastfeed after being born.

She said: ‘After the first hour or two, stress hormones in the baby from being born recede and the baby gets really, really sleepy.

‘You want to catch them in the first hour when they are wide awake, moving around and interested in latching on and sucking, because after that they crash. So that hour is what they call the golden hour.’

British breastfeeding rates are the worst in the world, with just one in every 200 babies breastfed until they are a year old.

The review of 46 trials including 3,850 women and their babies, across 21 countries, found women with skin-to-skin contact were more likely to exclusively breastfeed from hospital discharge to one month post-birth. They were 50 per cent more likely to stick with it until their child was six months old.

Experts say this is because a child placed on their mother’s chest quickly learns how to latch on to feed, following odour cues from their mother’s body. Many women give up on breastfeeding because they cannot get their baby to take the breast. The review states: ‘The evidence from this updated review supports using immediate or early skin-to-skin contact to promote breastfeeding. This is important because we know breastfeeding helps babies avoid illness and stay healthy.’

The studies also found that babies held naked by their mothers on their naked chest under a hospital gown or blan- ket had higher blood sugar, which can fall dangerously low in newborn infants.

Their heart rate and breathing rate were more stable, showing babies lying on their mothers were less stressed following the traumatic experience of moving from the womb into the outside world. The experts said more research was needed to determine whether women giving birth by Caesarean benefit from skin-to-skin contact.

Previous studies have found babies held against their mother’s skin in a ‘kangaroo mother care’ position recover more quickly from medical procedures.

Kangaroo mother care involves infants being carried by their mother with skin-to- skin contact for as long as possible every day and is often used with premature babies.

The review concludes that women holding their babies against their skin should be ‘normal practice’.