Fun fact about me: I *love* prenatal appointments with my patients. Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly not because they are any easier before baby arrives. I get so excited to meet with families who are actively preparing for breastfeeding by setting up their prenatal consultation and meeting their local IBCLC.
There are just so many important things to learn about breastfeeding before baby arrives and having a thorough plan in place to reach your goals with your IBCLC. For my families who aren’t able to schedule that appointment for various reasons, I have written this post for you! Within this article I will explain how implementing the Golden Hour in your birth plan can help get breastfeeding off to a good start!
The “Golden Hour”
The Golden Hour refers to the immediate hour following baby being born. For most healthy moms and babies the goal is to ensure that baby goes directly to mom after being born and remains on her bare chest skin-to-skin for at least the first hour. The importance of this step is so paramount in breastfeeding for a variety of reasons.
Plus, it’s just plain wonderful to have uninterrupted time to bond with your baby! Weights, measurements and other routine diagnostic tests can be postponed for that time, simply advocate to keep your baby with you as long as mom and baby are healthy and well! Aside from just the breastfeeding piece of the puzzle, the golden hour is incredibly beneficial for baby, also!
In this article from Nursing for Women’s Health, they explain: “This particular Golden Hour intervention is especially critical, because it promotes neonatal thermoregulation, decreases newborn stress levels, improves mother–newborn attachment, and encourages breastfeeding (Phillips, 2013)”. During that first hour, baby’s primal instincts are to locate the nipple and begin breastfeeding. I like to describe it as their “Homing Beacon”.
They come out with built-in abilities to seek out, “Breast Crawl” even, to find their way to their mothers nipple. Your darkened areolas? That is to help baby find your breast after birth since their eyesight is not yet developed. Once on your chest they will begin rooting at their hands and on your chest. In utero the amniotic fluid has a scent that coats baby, their arms/hands will have this scent and once born and on your chest, your nipple secrets the same scent that baby will use to find the breast and begin feeding. It’s not just beneficial for baby, but also mom – Breastfeeding early on can also speed up the delivery of the placenta, reducing the risk of postpartum hemorrhage (also called PPH).
Bottom line, all you need to do is tell your provider you want the undisturbed first hour or golden hour directly after birth and just lay there snuggling with your newborn when the time comes! Pretty simple and super beneficial!
Want to see something cool? The “Breast Crawl” is an incredible video showing the primal instincts of a newborn baby crawling up the mothers stomach to her chest and finding then latching onto the mothers breast – *all on their own!*.