Facilitators, barriers and implications of immediate skin-to-skin contact after caesarean section : an ethnographic study

Abstract

Skin-to-skin contact immediately after a normal birth has been shown to provide many benefits for babies and mothers. In addition to keeping newborns physiologically stable, encouraging early initiation of breastfeeding, improving breastfeeding outcomes and helping contract the mother's uterus, skin-to-skin contact is also is known to reduce the stress of birth and increase bonding between the mother and newborn. Less is known about skin-to-skin contact following a caesarean section. A literature review revealed that there were only seven papers that discussed the outcomes of providing immediate or early skin-to-skin contact after a caesarean section. Since completing the literature review, a further 19 papers have provided evidence about immediate or early skin-to-skin contact after a caesarean section. Current evidence shows that immediate or early skin-to-skin contact after a caesarean section can potentially improve maternal and newborn emotional wellbeing and physiological stability, reduce maternal pain, improve parent/newborn communication and improve newborn feeding outcomes. The review highlighted that immediate and early skin-to-skin contact in the operating theatre can potentially decrease the immediate post-operative time in recovery, the time admitted in the postnatal ward and can decrease Neonatal Intensive Care Unit admissions, therefore potentially decreasing organisational workload and expenditure. The findings also provide evidence that employing quality improvement programs is a successful way to implement safe skin-to-skin contact after caesarean section. Despite the increasing evidence of the benefits of immediate or early skin-to-skin contact, it is still something many mothers and babies do not experience.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English