How to Help Your Baby on the Birth Day

There are various strategies you can use to help your baby become accustomed to being outside the womb. If you are having a hospital birth, you may wish to include some of these in your birth plan.

Touch – For nine months the only form of touch your baby has experienced is skin to skin – his named skin against your uterine walls. Once your baby is born the best thing you can do is to lie him skin to skin against your tummy and chest. Place your naked baby against your chest, covering both of you with a blanket or towel to keep him warm (put a nappy on him if you are worried about mishaps). If the room is cold or he seems cool, you can put a hat on his head. In this position your baby can latch onto your breast and begin to feed at his convenience. This perfectly natural position is commonly called Kangaroo Care. In the early days, aim to “kangaroo” your baby for as many hours as possible. Even babies delivered by Caesarean section can be warmed up on their mum’s chest instead of being removed to a clinical incubator. New mothers’ bodies are so tuned in to their babies that their body temperature will adjust to keep the baby at the optimal temperature. 

Sight – In the moments after your baby’s birth you may notice small “saccades” – tiny shifts of his eye movements – as he scans the room looking for your face in his baby strollers travel system. These saccades have been shown to stop only when a baby’s eyes meet his mum’s or dad’s. To help your baby find your face and to create a visually soothing space, ask for the delivery room lights to be dimmed and bring him to your chest, 20-25cm (8-10in) from your eyes. This is the perfect distance for his eyes to focus on your face.

Sound – The sound that your baby has been most familiar with in utero is your voice. For a period of time immediately after birth, your newborn will be calm and alert, listening to and focusing on you. Both you and your partner can talk quietly to your baby to calm him after birth.      

Smell – The smells your baby loves best are the familiar smell of the womb and the sweet smell of breast milk. Do not wash your baby immediately after birth. Wipe him down if he is a little bloody but do not wash off the vernix. There is evidence that unwashed babies bring their hands to their mouths sooner after birth than washed babies. Sucking on his hands is one of the first, really important strategies your baby will use to calm himself. Aside from vernix, the soothing smells of mum are comforting at this stage. Therefore, hold your baby in the sit and stand double stroller or have him close to you as much as possible in the early days. 

ArticleSource: ArticlesAlley.com