Epidural and immediate skin to skin

[Ooosahh]

I wondered if anyone could help.

Is is true that if you have an epidural the midwives can't give you your baby immediately, that they need to do lots of checks?

I just ask as I am a ftm and want to try skin to skin and self latching breast feeding within the first hour of birth which I've heard is most effective. I also want the option of an epidural if I need one!

Anyone ideas?

[originalusernamefail]

I had an epidural for DS2. He was placed on my chest immediately after birth and the MW left the checks til we were ready.

[starsinyourpies]

2 epidurals here, both had skin to skin pretty immediately.

[Notsure1234]

Ds was given straight to me for skin to skin, checks done after. Epidural bloody amazing!

[Ooosahh]

Oh that's fab! Thank you ladies

[PastysPrincess]

I had an epidural and did skin to skin straight away. In my case they did have to take him to do checks very soon afterwards but that was due to a genetic condition in the family (which thankfully he didn't have) and I got him back very quickly.

It's also not true that you wont be able to move if you have an epidural.

[DirtyDancing]

Not true. I had one and immediate skin to skin

[girlelephant]

Also had an epidural & DC passed straight to me

[blue2014]

I think it's c sections when you can't have it (I assume? I had c section and no skin to skins, we are both fine without it though)

[KenDoddsDadsDog]

I had an epidural and forceps. Baby delivered onto my tummy and immediate skin to skin.

[toomuchtimereadingthreads2016]

Agree with PP, no problem for immediate skin to skin. Not sure if baby might need a bit more help finding your breast though as it is true that they can be a bit groggy straight after birth with epidural!

[BreatheDeep]

Epidural with my second and he was placed on me straight away. He latched fairly quickly too. They waited until he finished feeding to do checks.

[Heirhelp]

I had epidural and EMCS. My baby was shown to me, given a quick wipes so she did not get cold and then we had skin to skin. Our skin to skin was more limited in that she was placed round my neck due to lack of any lower feeling because my epidural was topped up for the cs.

[Heirhelp]

My daughter latched on straight away.

[sycamore54321]

"Not sure if baby might need a bit more help finding your breast though as it is true that they can be a bit groggy straight after birth with epidural"

This is completely untrue. There is zero evidence to suggest epidural a make babies sleepy.

I had epidural and skin to skin both times. I will say though that I believe skin to skin is completely overhyped and if it doesn't happen for you for whatever reason, that's absolutely fine too - if medical medical attention is needed for you and/or your baby, that is way more important than the small benefits of skin to skin.

I'd also advise you to be realistic about self-latching - in my personal experience, this would have resulted in either no latch at all, or a terrible latch shredding my nipples. My babies and I needed much expert help to get breastfeeding started.

Best wishes.

[jellypi3]

My friends who had epidurals all had skin to skin no problem. I think they only delay skin to skin if there are complications that mean the baby needs checking out urgently.

[KatnissMellark]

I've been told by hospital that unless there are other complications they would aim for delayed cord clamping and skin to skin even with epidural / assisted delivery / c-section. Obviously with those types of birth it is more likely that there are/will be complicating issues but they mode of delivery does not automatically preclude skin to skin.

[toomuchtimereadingthreads2016]

www.lalecheleague.org/ba/nov99.html "Epidurals and breastfeeding" xx

[Whatsername17]

I had an epidural with dd1 and immediate skin to skin. With dd2 I had a natural birth and had to wait. She had the cord around her neck though so I think that was why.

[wineapotamus]

Skin to skin after c section here. All fine.

[sycamore54321]

An article (with clear bias in its language and reasoning - science is not about 'reassuring', it's about evidence) from a non-peer reviewed source from eighteen years ago is not evidence of anything.

[toomuchtimereadingthreads2016]

Erm... I didnt say it was? And also didn't direct my comment at you! :S Just shared a link that the OP might find interesting... She asked about epidural and skin to skin, and epidural and breast feeding...

[BagelDog]

As others have said, as long as no concerns with baby meaning that they need checks, then they can be delivered straight on to you, delayed cord clamping, physiologic third stage etc all perfectly possible. Epidural don't make babies drowsy so no extra checks needed from that point of view. You may need your blood pressure checked intermittently but that won't get in the way.

[sycamore54321]

You would need blood pressure checked regularly after birth regardless of pain relief or type of delivery. You might be bleeding internally and blood pressure reading allows them to identify this before it is catastrophic.

OP the type of things that might make it advisable for the baby to be separated from you are

• either one or both of you is actually sick. The baby's Apgar score will be the main indicator of this. Your main risks are around excessive bleeding, retained placenta or if you need stitching for an extensive tear.
  

• assisted delivery, i.e. vacuum or forceps. Here they need to check firstly whether the baby has incurred any injuries from the instruments, and secondly whether the baby has had any issues flowing from the reason the assistance was needed in the first place. So if the baby had shown some distress during the labour, which meant that an assisted delivery was nexessary, they prefer to do an early check to know that this didn't affect him or her.
  

Personally while I very much enjoyed holding my babies after they were born, I absolutely loved the reassurance of a full check-over by a consultant paediatrician in the delivery room.

In many cases, if not highly urgent, you can still hold your baby for a few minutes before the doctors do what they need to do. But there are cases where this delay would result in greater risk of harm so please don't over-invest in wanting things to happen in a specific precise order right after the birth. You have an entire lifetime of bonding ahead of you.

[jellypi3]

sycamore makes a very good point. There's a lot of focus on skin to skin, delayed cord clamping etc. and having the perfect 'zen' birth. I felt like a failure after my DD was born because she was born in theatre, in an emergency situation and I didn't get skin to skin or any of those things. It took a very long time for me to come to terms with what happened and realise I had focused so much on having the perfect birth experience I was grieving for what I had 'lost'.

At the end of the day my daughter was delivered and was safe which is the most important thing. I'm hoping next time to be much more relaxed about it and basically just go with what happens.

[ScarlettFreestone]

I had both an epidural and a c-section with my twins and they were both put skin to skin immediately. (While they were sewing me up)

My DS crawled up my tummy and matched on. DD was too tired and needed help to latch after a wee while.