Baby warmer or skin-to-skin contact?

amazing_love · #1 April 28th, 2010, 08:28 AM

Was your baby placed in a warmer when he/she was born or immediately given to you?

I'm worried someone is going to whisk my baby off to a warmer after birth without asking me first. I have in my birth plan that I want my baby warmed by skin to skin contact instead and also that I'd like bonding time before any procedures, but am still nervous they won't follow my wishes. I know hospitals have routines they are used to... do you think I should worry?

SandKmommy · #2 April 28th, 2010, 08:37 AM

I think the "norm" now days is to give baby right to you, barring any complications. Seamus was placed right on my chest as soon as he came out, cord still attached an everything, and he stayed there for over an hour before they cleaned him, then they cleaned him and gave him back to me for 2ish more hours till they tried to move me to the PP room.
Obviously Kieran wasn't given skin to skin right away because she was a c-section, but she was given to dh and he held her for 2hrs except for the 20minutes they brought her to the recovery room so I could nurse.

**jessie** · #3 April 28th, 2010, 08:41 AM

Yes, I think its much more common nowadays to let the mommy have time with baby right after the birth. They will take him at some point to do their thing, but its normally super fast. I don't know much about it because I didn't get to even see my baby for 3 hrs after his birth and did not get to hold him for nearly 2 days

LisanAndy · #4 April 28th, 2010, 09:23 AM

They gave both my girls to me for about 2-3 mins and then took her to the warmer to get weighed, measured, and all the other initial newborn stuff while I was delivering the placenta and getting sewn up. That only lasted about 10 mins and then they brought me my baby

**Jenn** · #5 April 28th, 2010, 09:33 AM

They were all placed right on my chest. Liam stayed about 15 minutes then they took him to weigh him and wrap him up and gave him back to me. The eye ointment and vitamin k shot they gave him while I was nursing him. It was a little over 2 hours before they took him to bathe him and whatnot.

Lochy and Lila were not born in a hospital but I got them both skin to skin immediately for a while. It was at least an hour before the midwife took them to weigh and measure and whatnot. But all that was done like 2 feet away from me because my room was mine for the whole time I was there. My Mom actually bathed Lila the first time (a few hours after she was born) and because she was born with so much vernix it was a brief sort of bath without soap because we didn't want to wash the vernix away, just the blood and whatnot.

The newborn procedures are not anything that needs to be done right away. They can be delayed a couple hours, just let them know you want that bonding time first. hey do take care of all that pretty quickly though.

IamMom · #6 April 28th, 2010, 10:54 AM

Nora was given to me (even though I asked that she be washed off first....read my birth story for this funny moment!)...Harrison was whisked away because he was not vigourous when he was born and had low apgar scores....He couldn't hold his own temp so they had to keep him under the warmer for his own wellbeing and safety....I had no problems with that. I got to hold him for a few pictures but he was taken to the nursery then for warming and for the specialty peds to look at him and I didn't get him back for 6 hours...well worth the wait though!

Frozendesire · #7 April 28th, 2010, 11:00 AM

Dustin was put on my chest right away. He stayed there for a good while before they took him to his warmer and checked him all over.

Curtis was wisked away really fast.. no reason other then there were SO many people in there and everything happened REALLY fast. There were two doctors in there and one of them took him right away and started teaching the students how to check over a newborn. The other doctor attended to me. I think it was just over looked and we were all so shocked how fast he came!

Oriyan · #8 April 28th, 2010, 11:14 AM

J.J was placed on my chest right away and he stayed there until he took a massive dump on me (20 minutes?). I was holding him while i pushed out the placenta. Then they took him to the warmer, weighed and measured him, did his vit k shot and eye crud and gave him to DH who then proceeded to wipe out the eye crud, while i was getting cleaned up and sewed up. Then he came back to me for a bit and since i was so tired, i ordered DH to go with him up to the nursery for his full check up. I slept for 90 minutes and then my Epi was removed, and then slept for another 30 minutes, and then was transferred to my PP room where it took me 25 minutes to pee, and then I got to shower. Then the whole world came to visit and i was exhausted.

Chelnae6 · #9 April 28th, 2010, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LisanAndy

They gave both my girls to me for about 2-3 mins and then took her to the warmer to get weighed, measured, and all the other initial newborn stuff while I was delivering the placenta and getting sewn up. That only lasted about 10 mins and then they brought me my baby

amazing_love · #10 April 28th, 2010, 12:34 PM

So it sounds like they always try to take the baby to the warmer at some point though? That is what's confusing to me... it seems unnecessary (in most cases) since the baby can be warmed by the momma

bittersweet · #11 April 28th, 2010, 12:42 PM

My baby was took to the warmer right away (it was right next to my bed, so its not like she went anywhere). She was there about 10 minutes, got checked over and washed while I delivered the placenta and got stitched up.

They didn't ask one way or the other, but I liked it this way. The warming bassinet had all their tools on it in case she needed to be resuscitated and I would think they can get a better assessment of the baby while it is the bassinet. Seems it would be more difficult with the baby in your chest and covered with blood/blankets. I wanted to make sure she was in no distress (er..and clean) before holding her.

My DH was right with her and helped bath her and assess her before they gave her to me. But like I said, everything happened in my birthing room so I didn't feel like they 'took her' from me.

SandKmommy · #12 April 28th, 2010, 12:43 PM

With Seamus they only took him to the bed to wipe him down give him his shots and eye drops and I had him right back, about 10 minutes, and like I said I'd already had skin to skin(and unsucessuful attempts of bfing(found out why later) for at least an hour before they took him. And when they did take him he was no more then 4feet away at the foot of my bed getting cleaned. (He was gone for a couple hours after I went to the PP room cause they forced me to sleep and did his newborn screenings at that point)

**Jenn** · #13 April 28th, 2010, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by longing4baby

So it sounds like they always try to take the baby to the warmer at some point though? That is what's confusing to me... it seems unnecessary (in most cases) since the baby can be warmed by the momma

I don't think its necessary to be taken to the warmer right away. Lochy had a hard time holding his body temp and they never took him from me, just put a bunch of warm blankets on us as I held him skin to skin. After about a half an hour or so he was doing better with his body temp. My Mom ended up taking him for a while though because of my hemorrhaging issues. I think in my birth center's case, the warmer is basically there just to keep the baby warm while being assessed and bathed, and of course all the necessary tools are there too in case there is a rescusitation emergency or something. But you can opt not to even have him bathed at all if you don't want. Lila didn't get her first real bath with baby soap until she was 4 days old, we wanted to make sure the vernix soaked all into her skin first.

ShannonMVT · #14 April 28th, 2010, 02:24 PM

I don't think Matthew ever went to the warmer. He went straight to me and stayed there I think until they gave me my pitocin shot and were stitching me up so he went for a couple minutes there in the room to get weighed and get wiped off a little.

Have you been on a hospital tour? Ask them what they normally do and if it's not what you want you can find out what is negotiable and what is not so you can make requests (or rather, have your hubby tell them).

Adriana's Mommy · #15 April 28th, 2010, 04:01 PM

When A.J and Adriana were born, it was mandatory for them to be skin to skin for at least one hour..

**I actually requested for my son to be weighed right after birth, but the nurse insisted that I wait at least one hour and do the skin to skin.. After dealing with Gestational Diabetes for 9 months, I wanted to know how much he weighed ASAP.. I didn't really push the issue and just gave into what they wanted..

Resi · #16 April 28th, 2010, 04:04 PM

My hospital would have put him right on me if I didn't have a c/s. I got skin to skin about 30 mins after he was born.

ANGWife · #17 April 28th, 2010, 04:24 PM

Before I could request it, I was asked if I wanted him right away. And I said I did, so they put him on my belly for a good 2-3 minutes. Then off to the warmer just to get stats and stuff. Then returned to me. It all happened very fast.

szczepanski · #18 April 28th, 2010, 04:30 PM

Nolan never left my chest, for about an hour I think. He was placed skin to skin, they did all of their checks while he was on my chest and then we nursed.

In fact, I actually remembered asking "Do you need to take him??"...they brought us warm blankets and placed them over the both of us to keep us warm and everything. They even cleaned him up a little on me.

I think it is pretty much the standard now to do immediate skin to skin, unless there is an emergency (like meconium).

freesiangel · #19 April 28th, 2010, 04:41 PM

Xander was given to me immediately - it was in my birth plan and my hospital was amazing about following my birth plan!! Although even if it wouldn't have been I think they would have given him to me immediately. About 20+ mins (who knows. lol) they weighed him and what-not, but that's it and I had him again.

Try not to worry too much. If you have a birth plan they should follow it. If you happen to notice it's especially busy or something is weird w/ your dr or nurses, just make sure you or Jimmy is there ready to say something when your baby is born.

..Penelope.. · #20 April 29th, 2010, 12:38 PM

They whisked Logan away before I even realized what was happening

I had to wait atleast 15 minutes to hold him, and then they had swaddled him, and I didn't think to undo him and put him to my chest. I was still in shock from suddenly being ready to have a baby.

However, my situation was one of the different ones...Logan had meconium in his fluid, and he came so fast that he had a ton of mucus that had to be suctioned.