Divya Deswal talks about the benefits of skin-to-skin for babies post-birth and how crucial they are for their growth
It is a very intense experience for a baby to come into the world. Come to think of it that you are living in a place which has no gravity, no air doesn’t need to do temperature control. Light is dimmed, sounds are faded, and you have yourself for company. You are moved, switched, sloshed, held by you, by the mother’s loving tissues constantly in companionship with the mother.
And suddenly you are out in the world. There is gravity, there is a sensation in your chest that says breathe. You take in the first breath of air, bright lights, loud sounds and it’s all not familiar. How would that feel for you? That’s just an idea. Think of what brings the baby out. The mother is pushing and that takes adrenaline as a hormone to facilitate the pushing in other words where the baby is lifted out of the abdominal cavity by surgery.
Even that could be stressful. One minute he was lounging in his jacuzzi and now he’s out in the world. Adrenalin is a key factor in the birth of the baby. It is important. It allows the baby’s internal organs to be protected while he’s making a transition. It’s a very big transition. It allows the baby to take that deep breath as he encounters the air, and it allows the baby to be alert and ready to come into this world.
But that’s great for now, but we cannot have the baby soaking up this kind of hormone for a very long period of time. What is really, really important for the baby and is the design of nature is that this baby immediately begins to feel welcomed, loved, safe, familiar and there is no other place that this happens better as he returns back to his mother.
If you’ll look around, there are many, many research articles on the efficacy of skin to skin contact. That very big jump he has taken his life. This contact slow, dim lights, gentle, the sound of the voice of the mother, beat of our heart, the smell of her skin helps him process what just happened. So babies and moms are always meant to be together after birth.
