The 2018 WHO Baby-Friendly Clinical Guidance continued to clarify the original Step 4 of the 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, stating that facilities should facilitate immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact and support mothers to initiate breastfeeding as soon as possible after birth. Yet fewer than half of newborns worldwide are breastfed in the first hour.

To analyse the process of uninterrupted skin-to-skin immediately after planned vaginal birth, faculty members Dr. Karin Cadwell and Dr. Kajsa Brimdyr conducted a study at a Baby-Friendly hospital in California, video recording babies and mothers during the first hour.

The results, published in the July/August 2018 issue of Breastfeeding Medicine, reveal both barriers to the universal application of skin-to-skin as well as opportunities to support the standard. Read the article here.