Excuse my ignorance & offtopicness, my knowledge here is moderate reading of Oster-like books & Rationalish blogposts & the like aimed at UMC parents, and being present for the birth of my kids in NZ’s midwife-led maternity system.
What is the alternative to immediate skin to skin contact? Is this is “medical professional takes kid away to measure & do heel prick etc. while someone else looks after mum” situation? Is this in a cultural context of total deference to medical authorities or how on earth does this become normalised? What is common in the US? (looks like immediate SSC is also the US standard: https://www.reddit.com/r/BabyBumps/comments/1dmarxj/how_do_i_make_sure_to_get_skintoskin_with_my_baby/)
It’s wild to me that this isn’t already the standard, I can’t imagine what they’re doing instead.
There’s no heel prick in low income countries because there isn’t the money for newborn screening.
Yep here it’s super common here in UgAnda the baby gets whisked away to check breathing, temperature, then gets washed, then gets wrapped up. Often babies are then given to mother wrapped in clothes. Skin to skin is highly variable and I would say the majority of babies don’t get it.
We should be careful about criticizing cultural norms. Cleaning and wrapping up the baby is often seen here as the best care they can get—it’s just unfortunate that it isn’t.
I don’t think it’s that wild that it isn’t the standard, I can easily see how other options after birth could be seen as “better” for a whole bunch of reasons.
Agree—in general when we want to keep someone warm we wrap them in warm clothes or blankets. I can see why it’s not intuitive to keep the baby undressed (and keep them warm in a different way).
Excuse my ignorance & offtopicness, my knowledge here is moderate reading of Oster-like books & Rationalish blogposts & the like aimed at UMC parents, and being present for the birth of my kids in NZ’s midwife-led maternity system.
What is the alternative to immediate skin to skin contact? Is this is “medical professional takes kid away to measure & do heel prick etc. while someone else looks after mum” situation? Is this in a cultural context of total deference to medical authorities or how on earth does this become normalised? What is common in the US? (looks like immediate SSC is also the US standard: https://www.reddit.com/r/BabyBumps/comments/1dmarxj/how_do_i_make_sure_to_get_skintoskin_with_my_baby/)
It’s wild to me that this isn’t already the standard, I can’t imagine what they’re doing instead.
There’s no heel prick in low income countries because there isn’t the money for newborn screening.
Yep here it’s super common here in UgAnda the baby gets whisked away to check breathing, temperature, then gets washed, then gets wrapped up. Often babies are then given to mother wrapped in clothes. Skin to skin is highly variable and I would say the majority of babies don’t get it.
We should be careful about criticizing cultural norms. Cleaning and wrapping up the baby is often seen here as the best care they can get—it’s just unfortunate that it isn’t.
I don’t think it’s that wild that it isn’t the standard, I can easily see how other options after birth could be seen as “better” for a whole bunch of reasons.
Agree—in general when we want to keep someone warm we wrap them in warm clothes or blankets. I can see why it’s not intuitive to keep the baby undressed (and keep them warm in a different way).