Mothers who had early skin-to-skin for at least 45 mins exclusively breastfed for 2 months longer. So why aren’t we doing it?

A recent study found mothers and full-term babies who had at least 45 minutes of immediate skin-to-skin exclusively breastfed for 2 months longer.

So why aren’t we doing it?

This blog-post summarises the study and the benefits of skin-to-skin, plus my take-home message.

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The Study:

In this prospective observational cohort study, 72 mother-infant pairs practising immediate skin-to-skin were categorised into two groups based on duration of skin-to-skin (≤45 or >45 min).

The Findings:

Mothers and full-term babies who had more than 45 minutes of immediate skin-to-skin after birth tended to:

• Immediately breastfeed longer (65 vs. 19 min)
• Breastfeed longer overall…