Skin-to-skin contact after birth: Developing a research and practice guideline.

Aim: Skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth is recognised as an evidence-based best practice and an acknowledged contributor to improved short- and long-term health outcomes including decreased infant mortality. However, the implementation and definition of skin-to-skin contact is inconsistent in both practice and research studies. This project utilised the World Health Organization guideline process to clarify best practice and improve the consistency of application.

Exploring outcomes for women and neonates having skin-to-skin contact during caesarean birth: A quasi-experimental design and qualitative study.

Problem: Women having an elective caesarean birth are often separated from their babies at birth with newborns transferred to a postnatal ward with the significant other.

Background: Two midwives were employed in 2019 to provide skin-to-skin contact for women who planned for elective caesarean births in a public hospital in metropolitan New South Wales with 4000 births per year and a 39% CB rate (57.8% of these births being elective).

Skin-to-skin contact and what women want in the first hours after a caesarean section.

Objective: To explore women's experience of skin-to-skin contact and what women want in the first two hours after a caesarean.

Design: Audio recorded interviews were conducted with women as a part of a larger video ethnographic research study where video recordings, observations, field notes, focus groups and further in-depth interviews were conducted.

Setting: A metropolitan hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Who owns the baby? A video ethnography of skin-to-skin contact after a caesarean section.

Problem: Providing skin-to-skin contact in the operating theatre and recovery is challenging.

Background: Barriers are reported in the provision of uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact following a caesarean section.

Aim: To explore how health professionals' practice impacts the facilitation of skin-to-skin contact within the first 2h following a caesarean section.

An implementation algorithm to improve skin-to-skin practice in the first hour after birth.

Evidence supporting the practice of skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding soon after birth points to physiologic, social, and psychological benefits for both mother and baby. The 2009 revision of Step 4 of the WHO/UNICEF "Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding" elaborated on the practice of skin-to-skin contact between the mother and her newly born baby indicating that the practice should be "immediate" and "without separation" unless documented medically justifiable reasons for delayed contact or interruption exist. While in immediate, continuous, uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact with mother in the first hour after birth, babies progress through 9 instinctive, complex, distinct, and observable stages including self-attachment and suckling.

Video ethnography during and after caesarean sections: methodological challenges.

Aims And Objectives: To describe the challenges of, and steps taken to successfully collect video ethnographic data during and after caesarean sections.

Background: Video ethnographic research uses real-time video footage to study a cultural group or phenomenon in the natural environment. It allows researchers to discover previously undocumented practices, which in-turn provides insight into strengths and weaknesses in practice.

A juxtaposition of birth and surgery: Providing skin-to-skin contact in the operating theatre and recovery.

Objective: to provide insight into the facilitators and barriers of providing skin-to-skin contact in the operating theatre and recovery.

Design: ethnographic study utilising video recordings, field notes, focus groups and interviews.

Setting: a metropolitan public hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Immediate or early skin-to-skin contact after a Caesarean section: a review of the literature.

The World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund recommends that mothers and newborns have skin-to-skin contact immediately after a vaginal birth, and as soon as the mother is alert and responsive after a Caesarean section. Skin-to-skin contact can be defined as placing a naked infant onto the bare chest of the mother. Caesarean birth is known to reduce initiation of breastfeeding, increase the length of time before the first breastfeed, reduce the incidence of exclusive breastfeeding, significantly delay the onset of lactation and increase the likelihood of supplementation.

Midwives' and doulas' perspectives of the role of the doula in Australia: a qualitative study.

Objective: to explore midwives' and doulas' perspectives of the role of the doula in Australia.

Background: doulas are relatively new in Australia; nevertheless, demand for them is increasing. Research has not previously explored the role of a doula in Australia.