Magic Hour The First 60 Minutes after birth

Everybody tells you how important it is to “latch” your baby as soon after birth as possible to ensure “successful” breastfeeding. Yet many mothers will tell you that this is practically impossible! Unfortunately, when latching does not happen soon after birth, mom’s confidence to breastfeed quickly wanes. All too soon, her milk “dries up” and this can put to an end her good intentions to breastfeed.

 

 But it doesn’t have to be like this. One big drawback to breastfeeding immediately after birth is that the labour ward and recovery room is a very busy place! There are midwives and babies, new parents, drips and bedpans, with porters bringing women in who have recently delivered and taking out those who’ve recovered to the post-natal ward. Amongst this chaos, women are expected to expose her breasts and give her baby his first breastfeed, while hampered with a drip and feeling embarrassed amongst a crowd of strangers. It’s no wonder that this ‘magic hour’ quickly fades into one she would rather forget.

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS FIRST “MAGIC HOUR”? Extensive research by doctors in the US supporting the skin-to-skin initiative has studied new mothers and fathers with their newborn in the first one to two hours after birth. They have identified nine stages that the baby instinctively progresses through at his own pace and in his own time, usually within the first hour after birth. How long these phases last differs from baby to baby, and they can be repeated or may occur in any order.

Ideally the couple and their newborn should be left in privacy, uninterrupted (but not unattended) for the first hour, or more, after birth so that mom and baby can recover from the ordeal of giving birth – and get to know one another. Skin-to-skin with hormones harmonising in mother and baby, a recovery in this way ensured survival in the past. Looking on, touching and reassuring mom is the Dad. His hormones (mainly vasopressin, but also dopamine) of love, compassion and protection are also flowing, making him just as important for the long-term survival of his little family.