There’s something birth workers call “the golden hour.” Research has shown that the first hours after birth are critical for regulating the baby’s temperature, breathing, and heart rate. It’s also an important time for establishing breastfeeding and facilitating bonding with their parents. In the past decade, more and more hospitals are becoming certified as “baby friendly". Meaning they will prioritize immediate skin to skin with the baby and the parent, a good breastfeeding relationship, and minimal separation throughout the hospital stay.
As doulas, and other believers in physiologic birth, we tend to stress the importance of an undisturbed golden hour after birth. And it is important. The trouble is that while some hospitals are becoming baby friendly, the system is still less than friendly to birthing people. The system’s idea of undisturbed includes bright lights, loud voices, the birth of the placenta, a nurse painfully pressing on your abdomen, checking for tears, and stitching if necessary.
This contrast between what birthing people are told is important, and the way we actually treat them sets so many off in their parenting journey already feeling defeated and behind.
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