Don’t you love that they call it kangaroo care??

Immediately after my son was born in a teaching hospital 28 years ago, the doctor handed him off to a nurse who carried him away from me to the bassinet, where she checked him out and carried out the standard newborn procedures. Then she wrapped him up in a blanket like a snug, unbreachable burrito and let me hold him. We attempted to nurse but he was drowsy and kept falling asleep. A while later they took him for observation and it was hours before I got him back because they said he was having trouble regulating his temperature. And thus began our rather arduous breastfeeding journey and the accompanying postpartum depression.

With my second baby, born into the hands of a midwife after a speedy-quick labor in the birthing tub, and placed directly into my arms, there was no separation for the first couple of hours. Assessments and procedures were carried out while my daughter lay on my chest, nursing like she’d never let go.

While lots of variables come into play in the breastfeeding and mental health outcomes of these two scenarios, there’s no doubt that continuous contact—or lack of it—had a powerful impact. The benefits of sustained skin-to-skin contact, aka kangaroo care ❤️,  immediately after birth are numerous and well-documented, such as:

For the birthing parent: faster delivery of the placenta, less bleeding, reduced stress, stronger bonding and caregiving instincts, greater breastfeeding success, and lower risk of postpartum depression and anxiety.

For baby: reduced stress of transition; more stable temperature, heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure; a stronger microbiome; easier bonding; and activation of instinctive feeding behaviors that support successful breastfeeding.

That last item - activating baby’s natural feeding behaviors - is a crucial consideration for families planning to breastfeed. For decades we have rushed healthy newborns through their first hours earthside when what they need is some time to come online. Researcher Dr. Ann-Marie Widström described nine instinctive stages that healthy, full-term babies exhibit in the first 1-2 hours after birth—birth cry, relaxation, awakening, activity, rest, crawling, familiarization, suckling, and sleeping—and in this paper, Dr. Widstrom and her team suggest that this innate process has been learned and practiced in utero, designed to culminate in breastfeeding.

This instinctive behavior is also referred to as the breast crawl, and here’s a sweet video of that. It kind of looks like nothing’s happening for most of the video, just some wriggling and grumbling, but wait for it!