Your baby at birth

Skin to skin

Extensive research tells us the many benefits of skin to skin immediately after baby is born. It helps to regulate baby’s heartrate, breathing and temperature, reduces their stress levels, aids with their first feed, as well as enhancing your milk supply.  

It has also been shown to have beneficial effects for the mother if they have experienced a traumatic birth.   

A minimum of an hour skin to skin and offering baby their first feed during this time can help to realise these benefits.  However, there is no limit, as baby grows, skin to skin can be a helpful tool when baby is unsettled.

Please see this UNICEF information for more details and a video.

Skin-to-skin contact - Baby Friendly Initiative (unicef.org.uk) 

Optimal cord clamping

When your baby is born they are still receiving oxygen and blood through the umbilical cord and placenta to allow a smooth transition into life outside of the womb. At any one time, a third of a baby’s blood volume is in their placenta. Therefore it is recommended that the cord is left unclamped until baby has received all of their blood. If the cord is left until it has stopped pulsating, baby can benefit from increased iron, oxygen and weight gain.

Delayed cord clamping is now routinely practised, this is when the cord is left for at least one minute after birth. 

However, if you would like your baby to benefit from optimal cord clamping please let your midwife know.  

If there are any concerns about your baby at birth then the midwife may recommend clamping and cutting the cord earlier in order to take your baby to the resusitaire for assessment. 

Vitamin K

After your baby is born your midwife will ask whether you would like your baby to have a Vitamin K supplement.  It is known that newborn babies have about 30% to 60% of the vitamin K an adult would have stored in their liver.  It isn’t known why this is or if there is a reason for this.  However, a very small amount of babies are born very deficient in Vitamin K and go on to develop Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding (VKDB).

VKDB can cause bleeding from the nose, umbilicus, mouth or into the brain which can in turn cause brain damage.  The instance of VKDB is 1 baby in every 10,000.  

Vitamin K is offered to babies in order to protect against this from happening.  It is offered as either as intramuscular injection into the top of baby’s leg or as an oral solution.

Injection – one off dose given shortly after birth into the top of baby’s leg.  One dose only. It has been found that Vitamin K levels stay higher for longer when given by injection as it remains stored in the muscle surrounding the injection site.

Oral solution (given by mouth) – given shortly after birth by your midwife.  A second dose is needed when baby is 4-7 days old and will be given by you.  A third dose is needed at a month old if you are exclusively breastfeeding