Today we are going to talk about one of the amazing benefits of skin-to-skin. Before we do, however, we want to make this very clear: if you are not able to have skin-to-skin with your baby immediately after childbirth, that is OKAY. The benefits of skin-to-skin continue well past the first day of life. It is still beneficial to do it at home, for as long as your baby will let you hold him or her! So please don’t feel guilty if you are medically unable to do skin-to-skin in the first days of life. You will still be able to foster an incredible bond when you bring baby home! That being said, here is what the Lamaze website has to say about one of the amazing benefits of this practice:
“A parent’s chest can heat up or cool down depending on the needs of the baby. After birth, when the newborn is placed on the parent’s chest skin to skin, the parent’s chest area has the ability to flush and heat up or even cool down based on feedback from the newborn’s skin and body temperature. This allows the newborn to adapt to maintaining their body temperature with extra help from the parent at the start. Another great reason to have that uninterrupted skin to skin immediately after birth.”
Isn’t this amazing?!? This is just one of the many reasons why snuggles are both emotionally and physically beneficial for you and your baby!
For more fun facts about birth and beyond, visit Lamaze’s website at https://www.lamaze.org.