Skin to Skin Contact

Keep Your baby warm and secure

Your baby should be placed skin-to-skin with you right at the time of birth.  Some hospitals practice skin-to-skin after C-sections in the operating room.

The cream on the newborns’ skin is good for them – it protects their skin from infection and helps keep them warm.  

Most babies are then ready to breastfeed within the first hour.  Continue to hold your baby skin-to-skin frequently during the first weeks.  

Make sure you can ALWAYS see your baby’s face to look for good color and normal breathing.

Benefits of Skin-to-Skin

• Keeps your baby warm
• Easier to bond and breastfeed
• Helps calm your baby
• Easier adjustment for your baby
• Keeps your baby’s blood sugar levels up
• Helps steady baby’s breathing

It’s great for partners to do skin-to-skin, too!

These materials were developed by the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute with collaboration from students in the Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative and lactation consultants at N.C. Women’s Hospital.  We would like to thank the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for their generous support of this and other projects that foster a breastfeeding-supportive society.  

For more information please visit, http://breastfeeding.unc.edu. Version 3. English April 2018, last updated August 2024