How to get off to a good start
Cuddling skin-to-skin with your baby
The first hour with your baby is a special time.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the first hour of a baby’s life is spent with uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact. Skin-to-skin can be done after a vaginal or Cesarean birth.
Cuddling skin-to-skin has many benefits:
- encourages breastfeeding
- helps regulate your baby's temperature and blood glucose
- helps create an emotional bond
- keeps baby warm
- reduces crying
Routine medical care can be done while your baby cuddles with you. Some care can wait and be done at a later time.
Your support person can hold and bond with your baby skin-to-skin too. It is a wonderful way to be a special part of your new baby's life.
You are encouraged to hold your baby skin-to-skin as often as you can in the first hours and weeks to come.
Skin-to-skin contact is when your baby is placed naked against your or another caregiver's bare skin. (Your baby may have a hat and diaper.)
Watch your baby's feeding cues
Your baby will give you cues when they are hungry:
- roots or turns head when cheek is stroked
- opens mouth and searches
- smacks lips
- makes sucking movements
- puts hand in mouth
- moves body in a way that looks like squirming
- cries (the last cue)
Having your baby stay in your room will make it easier to watch for feeding cues.