Skin to skin after ELCS

[scaryfairy28]

Been booked today for a ELCS following failed ECV. Hospital say no to skin to skin until back in observation can I argue it? Its really important to me.

Hi Scaryfairy
I also had an elcs for breech 6 weeks ago, and was a big bundle of terror and anxiety before it (spent weeks trying to turn the poor little mite) so I feel your pain. In the end it was fine, I was just massively relieved that it was all over and that dd was safe. It was frustrating waiting for her to be brought to me and dp after she'd been checked over (I was fortunate I guess that this was in the same room so I could at least hear her, and she was shown to me briefly on the way to be checked). However, the upside was that once she was handed to us that was it - she didn't need to be taken away for anything again, and we spent the rest of the op (and ever since!) cuddling and marvelling at our little miracle. She was wrapped to keep her warm but dp and I snuggled her face against ours - I then had proper skin to skin in recovery and she fed straight away. I agree with other posters that things I thought would be important just didn't really matter, and as soon as you see your baby the time will fly and you'll have her snuggled up on your chest in recovery before you know it. All the best.

Skin-to-skin in theatre is tricky due to the fact that theatre is much colder than the delivery rooms. The last thing you would want is your baby becoming unwell due to being cold, I imagine. It is also slightly more tricky with the position you are in on the theatre table. You don't really want baby on your chest (which is of course the obvious place for skin-to-skin) as the weight of the baby and the continuing operation and the spinal anaesthesia can make you feel unwell. It is also not a great position to be able to see your baby! Skin-to-skin should be encouraged with partner if it is important to you so soon after birth IF plenty of warm towels are used on top of baby, no midwife should deny this. You should then have plenty of skin-to-skin with baby once back in recovery, transfer to the ward and for as long as you want on the ward following.
Babies shouldn't be removed from you unless there is a medical need. The excuse of weighing baby etc is not good enough, there should be a set of weighing scales in theatre for you. I imagine that the theatre is an obstetric theatre so there should be no problem with a set being in there.

I had a wonderful planned CS, following a hospital birth and a home birth so I fully anticipated hating it.

The lights were all dimmed, other the main operating light,
The screen was lowered for the birth
All supporting staff were asked, by the consultant, to stand back at the moment of birth so that my DH and I would be first to see our baby and acknowledge the sex
I had immediate skin-to-skin in theatre (he was tucked into my gown and an extra blanket wrapped around us both. HE even began feeding in theatre.
Weights and measures were taken some time later back in recovery.
(However, it was obvious that this was a large and robust and healthy baby. I would not have objected to him being taken away if there had been any hint of a problem.)

I did however have a midwife from the Birth Centre in with me and she was quite formidable It was a fabulous birth, quite different, but on a par with my homebirth.

My midwife also photographed the whole event which I thought would be BLEUGH but were stunning, the look on everyone's face, as though they never become jaded by the miracle of birth.

Good luck, it can be a really moving, perfect experience.

Thank for all the votes of confidence think I'm probably just obsessing about it cos its all so different to what I'd hoped for. Doesnt help that the antenatal classes here are very focused on the midwife centre being good and labor ward being to be avoided!! Spoke to my community midwife today who said it should all be fine there's nothing on my list thats totally unusual and that I just have to hope for a good midwife on the day basically.

"? If baby does not breathe spontaneously and has to be removed from room for resuscitation then DP is to go with her"

If the baby doesn't breathe spontaneously, shouldn't it be more important that they get the baby to the resuscitaire pdq and do their job, rather than making sure dad is about and possibly gets in the way?

I'd be more worried that they make sure my baby is alright than anything else. I doubt it'd make any difference to the child.

And it;s not as if they'd take the child miles away, more like only a few meters.

I don't really get the fuss about not weighing and measuring straight away, either. It didn't even occur to me to protest against this, or that it was something to protest about.

WidowWadman it's not a protest, but a request. My consultant was very casual about the whole weighing thing and had no problem with sanctioning weighing an hour or so later.

I guess you could turn it round and say , what's all the fuss about weighing & measuring, if the baby looks to be within a healthy range, is it just bragging rights?

Fair enough, but why request it to be delayed? Just curious, as I don't get it?

Because immediate skin to skin has been shown to be so beneficial to babies one of many and when your baby is being born into the hustle and bustle and bright lights of an operating theatre having them spend the first few hours skin-to-skin with their mother acclimatising, settling, warming up is far more important than being able to tell your in-laws that he was 8lb12. I didn't want my baby to be handled by anyone else in those first few hours, but it really didn't appear to cause anyone any concern. No one treated me as though I were a freak of nature for asking for weighing to happen later.

Your link refers to "early", not "immediate". Misinterpreting this just leads to anxiety in those who don't get immediate skin-to-skin for whatever reason.

I doubt that there is a study out there which will show worse outcomes in children who have been measured first and then be put on their mother's (or father's chest), compared to those who had immediate skin to skin. If you can show me one with a sound methodology, I promise to eat one of my hats. I even let you choose which one.

Yeah, maybe the weight and length is not that important, but I think checking a baby over to see whether it's all ok, is, and they might as well do that while they're at it, it's not as if it takes hours. Once it's done, the baby can spend hours and hours and hours undisturbed. A 2 minute delay is not going to make a difference.

It made a difference to me and surely that's all that matters. I am astonished that my choices perturb you so much? Meanwhile, if you are genuinely interested I will try & find a link to a more thorough study.

I think it is genuinely weird that you have made a big issue out of this. My baby was weighed at 3 hours old, yours (I assume) immediately. Erm,..... big deal?

immediate and uninterrupted skin to skin 1

and uninterrupted Australian research

oops will try that one again

www.breastfeedingtas.org/resources/Why_is_skintoskin_important.pdf

Just want to point out that you asked to see some research, immediate and uninterrupted skin to skin was my decision and it was readily 'granted'. I am not on a crusade, I don't have any issues with how other women give birth and the decisions that they make, but the op was asking about what is possible.

Some interesting studies here-
www.scienceandsensibility.org/?p=305

and-
www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab003519.html

It sounds as thought Switzerland have got things sorted much better than the UK :). I would love to have a health system where I felt I could just relax and trust the HCPs to do what was in the interests of myself and my baby as individuals. I would love to have a health system where there was plenty of support for breastfeeding. I would love to have a health system where MWs had sufficient time and support within the system that they were able to give all pregnant and labouring women continuity of care and 1-to-1 support. Sadly, too many women in the UK have an experience where those things are not provided (whether through lack of resources or personality).

Yes, in the grand scheme of things immediate skin to skin isn't the be all and end all. But to me this thread isn't about that - its about a woman who's experience with her HCP's is that what she thinks and feels are irrelevant, who's been told that things will happen pretty well without her consent (even though they're non-essential and arguably no more important than her preferred choice) and who now feels like she has no input and no control into how the birth will proceed.

Its not about having a perfect or idealised birth experience, its about being treated as an individual with thoughts, feelings and opinions rather than a patient on a conveyor belt. Its about the HCP's according the women under their care just a smidgeon of respect.

Amen Tangle
and it can happen, with a cs.

scary - you should make your feelings known. Most hospitals actively encourage skin to skin after a CS.

Be aware that you might need your DH to actively 'hold' the baby onto you.

I personally didn't bother. Both DSs were very quickly weighed, bundled up and had a good old snuggle with DH. I thought it was lovely that DH had that initial cuddle; after all the focus on me it was fab that he had that precious first contatc.

In any case, the stitching only takes about 20 mins then you're in recovery for 3 hours of skin to skin and BFing. I loved it; it was very peaceful.

Remeber to take a soft receiving blanket/muslin to wrap around your BP cuff.

"Have to say that my reaction to this, again only with the benefit of hindsight and having NOT had skin-to-skin with my twins, is that it's yet another thing for mothers-to-be to get worked up about, worry about, and fret about if they don't get it. "

Exactly my feeling - it's great if you get it, but really not a big deal if you don't, I believe, but I'll have a look at the links, too.

I don't understand the direction this has taken at all. We were sharing our experiences for the OP. No one was being evangelical, or suggesting that this is a must for every woman, we were informing the op that it was possible and we had enjoyed the experience. It was you WidowW who pushed the issue with 'I don't get it' and 'a 2 min delay is not going to make a difference.'

I asked for it, I got it, I enjoyed it, the OP can ask for it if she chooses, what's the big deal?

I had everything on your list with my second section in a London NHS hospital in 2008 - didn't even have to ask. This isn't unreasonable at all. Go for it.

For god's sake, why are you being so defensive? If you're happy with your choice and you got it, great. Why is it so unreasonable to ask for the reasoning behind it, what is so important about it? Just out of genuine interest?

And what's so wrong with trying to reassure people, that it will not have a huge negative impact if for one reason or another the immediate is not possible? I'm not arguing against skin to skin, at all.