Article explores link between early skin-to-skin after cesarean and breastfeeding success

The abstract of an article written by Kristina J. Hung, a perinatal nurse at San Francisco Genreal Hospital and Trauma Center and Ocean Berg, a Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist also at the same hospital, is available for review here.  The two set out to improve the rates at which early skin-to-skin-contact (STS) was initiated in healthy newborns and their mothers in the operating room and during recovery in order to increase the success of breastfeeding in this group.  The project concluded “STS contact was feasible after cesarean and could be provided for healthy mothers and infants immediately after cesarean birth.”  The project was able to increase the rate of early STS from 20% to 68%, and found that “healthy infants who experienced STS in the OR had lower rates of formula supplementation in the hospital (33%), compared to infants who experienced STS within 90 minutes but not in the OR (42%), and those who did not experience STS in the first 90 minutes of life (74%).” They call for perinatal and neonatal nurses to be the leaders in changes in the standard operating procedure after cesarean deliveries.