Skin-to-Skin Contact

The International Childbirth Education Association (ICEA) recognizesthe benefits of early and frequentskin-to-skin care in the first hours and days after the birth of a baby. Decades of research demonstrate the benefits of skin-to-skin care for both mother and baby including optimal adaptation to extra-uterine life for the newborn. The International Childbirth Education Association encourages education on the benefits and practices supporting skin-to-skin care being included in basic birth education curriculum.

When in the appropriate habitat, which for newborns is the mother, the newborn is physically capable & neurobehaviorally programmed to behave in such a way as to provide for its own needs (warmth, food, & nurturance) (Kolsoon 2018).