"The Golden Hour"..

After your baby is born, the best place for them to transition is skin to skin with you. Putting your baby directly onto your chest after birth helps regulate babies temperature with yours, breathing with yours and studies show skin to skin can help regulate blood sugar levels. The best way to plan for the "Golden Hour" is to let your health care provider know ahead of time that this is what you want. Having a birth plan that tells your birth team how you want your labor and birth to go is one of the best ways to plan ahead. This way if things change they are still aware of what your wishes are. Especially in the hospital, it's best to let the nurses and hospital staff know that you want "The Golden Hour" with your baby. This will ensure they do not take the baby away but instead will leave them skin to skin on you. This is of course if you and baby are stable. The importance of the Golden Hour is so that it allows the baby to transition and get to know you from the outside. Within the hour you will notice the baby start to push up or turn their head toward the breast. They may even start to crawl toward the breast and little by little they may even latch on their own. Every baby is different but all babies are born with the instinct to nurse and try to get to the breast. The Areola of your nipple has little bumps that are called Montgomery glands. These glands release a fluid that maintain your nipples clean and soft. This fluid smells like amniotic fluid and is familiar to the baby which in turn will make them want to go towards it. To see this happen you can click on the link to watch "The Breast Crawl"..