Skin to skin - or lack of

[BigLove]

So, I had the golden hour after birth with my baby, my husband also had skin to skin in hospital after birth, and I’m breastfeeding fine… however, my baby is almost 5 weeks and I have realised that we haven’t done skin to skin purposefully since the birth. We are always cuddling and contact napping clothed.
I plan to do skin to skin going forward, but am just hoping the lack of skin to skin for those few weeks won’t effect my baby and hope I’m not the only person!
Feeling serious mum guilt (I am a first time mum!)

It won't hurt. You baby will be fine for plenty of cuddles, and it's not like you don't touch their skin (sharing your microbiology) when you do nappy changes and bathe them!

Honestly, I didn't like skin to skin. I was so tired, so sore, and was breastfeeding, I was "touched out". Later on, when I was trying to keep breastfeeding going while having to formula feed (low supply) I did do it, but I still never really liked being crawled and slobbered on! It did help with improving her latch, though, so there is something in it, but if your breastfeeding is going well, I really really wouldn't stress.

There will be much bigger and impactful parenting choices / things that "just happen" than this one! :D

I didn't get any skin to skin with DD as I had an emergency c-section and was then very ill for a few hours, so she was dressed when I met her. She's been fine. It hasn't affected our bond at all. She's a teenager now and is very loving and huggy.

Don't worry! It's not like you have to "do" skin to skin specifically. It's a very useful thing to do after birth because it can help kickstart breastfeeding and bonding, but it's a bit impractical to be doing it all the time tbh.

The reason you do skin to skin is to stimulate oxytocin release, but you get that anyway from the skin contact while breastfeeding and also from general cuddling, eye contact, talking to your baby etc. It's all good, it's all bonding. If you like doing skin to skin then you can, but you don't need to worry that your baby has missed out on anything, they won't have.

I never really did it due to a difficult birth and it being freezing cold when we got home! Didn't make any difference at all, I still feel we have an amazing bond and cuddle all the time.

It's only a thing directly after birth anyway isn't it?

I don't think I did any after the first day or so, it didn't even cross my mind. Don't worry about it!

Didn't get to do it after the birth as I had a massive haemorrhage following an emergency section. It never occurred to me to do it once home! Dd is now 8, fine and we have a great relationship. Don't fret!

I’m not sure I really had skin to skin with my DS; I had a c section and they wrapped him up and then as it was winter I never really did skin to skin at home. We did have lots and lots of cuddles though and it did not effect him or my bond with him at all.

It’s something I enjoyed doing with mine at home. No harm done now of course but if you want to do it go for it. I loved wrapping mine up in blankets having skin to skin 😊

If your breastfeed then there's likely to be a far amount of face to boob skin contact. It doesn't have to be full body chest to chest.

We didn’t do skin to skin beyond the initial few minutes holding her after birth, didn’t breastfeed and our 4 year old is a happy, confident, loving and affectionate little girl. Obviously she was cuddled and adored. It won’t make a jot of difference as long as you’re showing your child love and affection.

Your baby will be fine OP. Your baby will be benefiting from getting so much positive, close, responsive physical contact with you. If it's something you want to do going forward then go for it, but don't beat yourself up about not doing it until now. It sounds like you're doing a great job.

Mine are winter babies and our house is cold (old house) so we so we did very little skin to skin once we were home (I can't think if I did any with my youngest). I met their needs in other ways.

I did skin to skin with DC1 but DC2 was planned c-section and we didn’t have it. He was wrapped up and given to DH then to me. I was absolutely fine with both scenarios to be honest. I bonded with both DCs, loads of cuddles but not much skin to skin after the initial contact. I felt so close just having them sleep on me with a blanket around us or in my dressing gown. It was lovely and we didn’t both need skin to skin in that moment to make it any less bonding.

I will say that I only BF DC1 for 3 months and I bottle fed DC2 from birth. I had a bad breastfeeding journey first time around and actually felt I bonded quicker and was mentally more stable second time around when DC2 was bottle fed. Perhaps skin to skin can help with BF but I don’t really have enough experience to comment.