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Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

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Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#31

Interesting. Our baby arrived 10 weeks premature and although it wasn't immediately after birth (as I'll explain why below), the hospital strongly encouraged the kangaroo care as mentioned in the article, which mom did daily until we could take our baby home. In a week it will be a full year since birth and the baby is in no way behind developmentally compared to other 10 month olds (when adjusting age due to prematu…

Congratulations! My kid was also a preemie and got kangaroo care alternating with being wrapped in a UV-emitting blanket. Now he is 8 and still blows me away every day with his kindness, smarts, skills and ... uh ... argumentation. :) The benefits of kangaroo care are worth studying, but the results of the study are about as unexpected as the 'your cats love you back' study.

> the 'your cats love you back' study

Hold on, your cats love you back?

Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#32
post #26
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While home birth is certainly possible and apparently can be a very nice experience, I strongly suggest going into a hospital for birth (you should be able to choose a hospital of your liking after talking to the nurses/doctors/midwifes working there). Birth is safe in most cases, but complications do happen. While the probability is low, the possible damage is extreme. Please consider the availability of experienced…

As a counterpoint, home births are in general very safe if recommended prerequisites have been met. Typically: 1) low-risk pregnancy 2) within X minutes of suitable hospital 3) higher level of monitoring in late pregnancy and perhaps two midwives at birth Birth - a natural process - has been commercially medicalised, especially in Brasil (C-section rate >60%) and the US (>30%). If giving birth at home was normalised,…

Point 1 is a big point. Lots of things make a birth not “low risk.”

Otherwise I think it’s an awesome idea and encourage people to consider it.

Birthing centers are also a great alternative. I do not especially like the idea of hospitals as default places of birth, but acknowledge the potential value when needed.

Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#33
Interesting to read this here. When my son was born (naturally, normal weight, fully healthy, and around expected due date), the midwife in Denmark had educated us about the Danish way of handling the birth - as soon as the baby comes out, they literally put the baby on mom’s chest, and leave us(parents, and baby) alone in the room for about an hour. Nothing needs to be done other than the baby being in care of it’s parents! They believed it helps the baby form a natural bond, but also acclimate to the outside world better than being whisked away and cleaned.

It was such a lovely experience. One of the many things I am thankful to Denmark for.

Several things that I was surprised to learn while going through this in DK.

1. Childbirth is handled by midwives (Jordemothers) instead of doctors. Doctors are brought only when medication or any treatment is necessary.

2. Child birth is considered a natural process and never treated/thought of as a sickness or medical condition. This is reflected in the whole process.

3. The social healthcare system works great. It changed my perspective even more. Not having to think about hospital bills or insurance leaves us parents to enjoy the arrival of our little one.

4. If everyone in the country, regardless of their current financial condition gets such an experience for their childbirth, I will gladly pay my taxes, and never complain. Healthcare should not be a business imho.

Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#34
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be thinking of one story that went viral a few years ago, and was amplified by the media. It was successful at generating outrage and so became popular, but it was not correct.

It would only be one of many ridiculous charges in the US medical system. I personally think it's pretty outrageous that one has to pay for medical care while giving birth at all.

So the doctors and nurses involved should just deliver babies for free? Does the free care apply only to standard births, and then they get paid if there are complications? Or is anything involving the delivery plus anything arising from it provided for free?

Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#35
post #18
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's a lot of stories / examples about this an item in the hospital bills .

You might be thinking of one story that went viral a few years ago, and was amplified by the media. It was successful at generating outrage and so became popular, but it was not correct.

They do actually charge for supervised skin-to-skin contact after a C-section [1].

1. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doula-explains-why-hospital-cha...

Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#36
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“During a caesarean, many people become shaky, nauseous, uncomfortable, even faint,” Grant explained. “These are normal physiological reactions. In order to facilitate skin to skin in the OR, an extra nurse needs to be available to assist.”

I don’t understand how that is a “mic drop” as they put it in the article. If these are normal physiological reactions, why would you charge extra for it? It must be the request to hold your newborn child that they consider not to be normal, then?

Normally the baby is whisked quickly out of the OR to a place that's not a tightly controlled clean environment, where skin to skin contact is facilitated without charge (to the father/non-birthing-close-relative, obviously, since mother is still in recovery). Source: two sons born this way in the US.

Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#37
I'm sceptical of single study medical research and especially that which involves the crazily political world of birth. It might be better to wait until the Cochrane collaboration does a meta analysis on multiple studies before anyone changes what they are currently doing.

Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#38
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would only be one of many ridiculous charges in the US medical system. I personally think it's pretty outrageous that one has to pay for medical care while giving birth at all.

So the doctors and nurses involved should just deliver babies for free? Does the free care apply only to standard births, and then they get paid if there are complications? Or is anything involving the delivery plus anything arising from it provided for free?

The central bank prints money (partially offset by tax). Some of that money could go to basic medical care like this, as it does in most other countries.

Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#39

Interesting to read this here. When my son was born (naturally, normal weight, fully healthy, and around expected due date), the midwife in Denmark had educated us about the Danish way of handling the birth - as soon as the baby comes out, they literally put the baby on mom’s chest, and leave us(parents, and baby) alone in the room for about an hour. Nothing needs to be done other than the baby being in care of it’s…

using midwives is quite common in most European countries. in some countries people usually bear there children at home instead of in the hospital as well.

Re: Immediate skin-to-skin contact with unstable newborns improves survival chances

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. For caesarean they do. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doula-explains-why-hospital-cha...

“During a caesarean, many people become shaky, nauseous, uncomfortable, even faint,” Grant explained. “These are normal physiological reactions. In order to facilitate skin to skin in the OR, an extra nurse needs to be available to assist.”

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