Why is the Golden Hour after Birth a popular buzz term if you will? And why are hospitals scrambling to change the culture of their labor and delivery units to cater to this “new” trend?
I will tell you why. It’s because it’s the absolute best thing for you and your baby. In this post, I am going to begin by giving you a glimpse into what is happening inside your baby before birth and immediately after.
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To understand the importance of the golden hour after birth, you must understand what is happening in your little one. And why he needs you to be on his team advocating to make the transition to life on the outside a smooth one.
The birth of a newborn is a miraculous event.
I am one of the fortunate people who get to participate in birth, and I get paid. I mean how cool is that?
Something I have come to realize is that many people are unaware of the miracle of a newborn and the importance of the golden hour after birth. When I am sharing what happens in the baby at birth, I become overly passionate. I mean like, hyped up!!
It reminds me of God’s greatness and the astounding fact that we go from a liquid life, receiving oxygen from the momma via the placenta, to breathing air within seconds.
Have you ever sat down and pondered that fact? Take a second and mull that over.
Okay, you ready for the deets?
It’s truly astounding.
I don’t know if you believe in God, but you have to believe in the miracle of birth. Each birth I attend (which is many) is a reminder to me that God is perfect.
Read these Articles ASAP:
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The Baby’s heart
The oxygenated blood flows from mom into the placenta. It then travels from the placenta through the umbilical cord to the baby’s liver. From there it moves through the ductus venosus, one of the three shunts in the fetal circulatory system. (A shunt is like a little passage that pushes the blood needing oxygen to a place that will supply it with some)
The reason for or purpose of the three fetal shunts is to bypass the liver and the lungs. Both of which, we need to live life on the outside of the womb but not while inside the womb.
The liver, which filters out the junk in our bodies, is not utilized yet. The umbilical cord carries its waste products and carbon dioxide back to momma, who then gets rid of it.
Foramen Ovale
The shunt that bypasses the lungs is called the foramen ovale. It moves blood through the heart from the right atrium to the left atrium.
Birth
At birth, we clamp the umbilical cord, and the baby is cut off from mom’s supply of oxygen and nutrients. The baby’s body begins its rapid change or transition.
With the first breaths of life, the lungs start to expand. As the lungs expand, the fluid inside the lungs (the alveoli) is cleared out. The Baby’s blood pressure increases and the pressure in the lungs decreases; causing the shunts to close.
The baby then begins to breathe air.
The change in the pressure also closes the Foramen Ovale and boom the baby is pumping its oxygenated blood throughout its body. The sweet baby no longer depends on mom for this process.
Are you bored?
If you are, then wait for it. I wanted to lay the groundwork for what is happening inside the baby as it is born. It’s something to be aware of and so worthy of respect.
And it is essential to understand why everyone in the birthing room should respect the process and allow it to unfold naturally.
All these crazy things happen in the few moments after the first breath and before you gaze into your babies eyes.
Thus begins the golden hour after birth and girl, no matter what, your child needs for you to defend it.
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What happens next?
Ok, so everyone who knows me, knows that I am all about minimal interruptions in the natural process of labor and during the golden hour after birth.
Having a baby is not a hospital procedure; IT’S BIRTH PEOPLE and birth is NATURAL. You ain’t going in to get a gallbladder removed.
As if all the shunts and shutting isn’t crazy enough, some crazy BLEEP happens after the baby is born.
Did you know that after the birth of a newborn, if placed immediately on the mother’s stomach, the baby can crawl up to the breast?
It is miraculous to watch.
I’m not sure why we think that the only mammal capable of building empires, could not do something as simple as crawl to its food source, but most people doubt it. Maybe it’s because the majority of you guys had intervention after intervention in your labor room. Sorry, I have unwittingly been a part of that faux pas.
Before we get into the details of the BEAUTY of what happens between mother and child during the golden hour. Watch this video.
Watch as these Babies latch themselves to the breast!
What if governments had a proven, cost-effective way to save babies’ lives, reduce rates of malnutrition, support children’s health, increase educational attainment and grow productivity?They do: It’s called breastfeeding. And it is one of the best investments nations can make in the lives and futures of their youngest members – and in the long-term strength of their societies.– Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director
Read this:
10 Surprising Health Benefits of Breastfeeding That Will Amaze You
The Newborn Breast Crawl
Ok, granted the crawl isn’t immediate and quick. It’s like a long romance between mother and child. It usually occurs soon after birth. Like all other mammals, newborn babies use their senses to find the boob. The senses combined contribute to our instinct to survive outside the womb.
Olfactory (little nose) ~ Visual (little eyes) ~ Taste (little tongue) ~ Auditory (your voice) ~ Touch (from them to you and you to them) All these things are vital to a successful golden hour after birth.
And guess who provides every one of these for the baby?
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YOU!
You are the one who brings all these needs to the table. Your smell, your face, your voice, and your touch meets every one of this new little human’s needs.
The Sense of Smell
Let’s talk about the olfactory sense first; this is one of the most influential factors during the immediate skin to skin moments.
I read this study that said mother’s hands getting involved in birth, also lends to the success of skin to skin, and the breast crawl of the newborn. When momma gets her hands on the baby as it comes out, she also gets amniotic fluid on them as well.
The fluid then gets onto her stomach and breast.
The baby is keen to follow that smell. However, they can also smell the natural “smell” of your breast and follow that as well. No clean boobies here ladies. Come on we all know that sweaty breasts have a smell. Lol!
Your baby likes a stinky boob smell.
Pro tip: don’t wash your boobs off after birth until later. Especially during the golden hour after birth.
Ok, so the baby comes out, we put the baby directly on your abdomen. Left alone, the baby will smell your breast, then begin to do an army crawl up your body and find your nipple and latch on themselves. Hands-off and watch!
LABOR NURSE, I know a few of you are reading this, and you are thinking well, this will take too long and interfere with my job. It’s not about us. That’s my mantra. I love you and I know we have a lot to chart and even more to do but we have to protect the golden hour after birth like the world depends upon it. We are the gatekeeper. We can make or break her experience.
The Sense of Sight
What can your little sweetheart see? Babies can see objects if they are within 8-10 inches of their eyes. Babies prefer to look at a face.
A baby placed on his mother will find her face and gaze into her eyes. I wish I could describe this process adequately. I’m not sure I can put to words what I want you guys to hear about this gaze between a mother and her child. It’s too big for words.
Something magical happens between the two of them and the rest of us (sorry dads) fade into the blur of the room.
This past Sunday my pastor taught about the gaze of a mother on her child and how the baby was intently gazing back because of the love in the mother’s eyes. But I would take it further and say, the infant is staring into the mother as intently as the mother is gazing into her because the baby recognizes her as someone she knows.
This interlocking of gazes is a beautiful moment to behold. Each as intense as the other, an innate sense of knowing one another.
Pro tip: Ask for your lights to be dimmed as soon as possible.
One of most favorite things to do in my labor room is to quickly clean up mom’s bed, put everything back together, and dim the lights. The baby will almost immediately open those little eyes and look around.
Can you imagine coming out of a perfectly cozy, darkened closet into the bright lights of a delivery room? No, me either!
The Sense of Sound
The soothing sound of its mother’s voice, along with touch and smell, is often enough to calm a startled newborn instantly. The mother’s voice is familiar and comforting as the baby has listened to this particular sound for months.
Momma, start to murmur to your newborn as they lay skin to skin on top of you. Tell your child all the hopes and dreams you have for them. Assure her that all is well and that you are there.
Tips: Protect your golden hour after birth by asking everyone to whisper and keep the room calm.
The Sense of Touch
The need for touch is met merely by being placed on top of you. Skin to skin and your hand/ dad’s hand on the baby is soothing and comforting to this baby.
The warm feel of your skin and touch of your hand helps to transition the baby to this world. When I place a baby, who is breathing fast onto mom, most time, they immediately begin to regulate their breathing and decrease the need for me to intervene. How cool is that?
Visitors
This one might sting a bit. Keep your labor room to your self after delivery. It’s okay to even ask your birth coaches (other than the primary one) to head to the waiting room. While you celebrate the golden hour after birth with your honey and your baby.
I promise it won’t kill Aunt Sally to see the baby at one hour and six minutes as opposed to immediately after birth. Those minutes are essential to your baby adjusting and to the success of the breastfeeding experience.
Pro tip: Ask your labor nurse to be the bad guy. She can tell family and friends that she has to clean you and the room up. Inform them that daddy will come out to get everyone after the nurse is finished.
Then she can take, oh say, an hour to clean up!
Key Take-Aways:
- Understand what is happening in your baby’s body at birth! Know your stuff girl!
- Research the Birth Crawl and watch the video above.
- The sense of smell, sound, sight, and touch are critical factors to a successful Golden hour!
- Your boob doesn’t need to be washed. Think birth boob!
- Gaze into your baby’s eyes!
- Ask for the people in the room to speak softly, and you talk to the baby.
- Have your nurse dim the lights.
- Keep your hands on your baby and your baby on you!
- Limit Visitors until after the golden hour is over.
- If you are having a cesarean, be sure to read my tips.
Okay, my friends, this was a long one but so important. Sometimes when I write a post, it is eh, alright. However, there are other times like this one, when something inside of me flows out. So I hope you loved this information as much as I do.
Please consider sharing so that all women can be informed and empowered to stand up and fight for the golden hour after birth!
Share your experiences in the comments!
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This is great information, but it made me sad that I didn’t get to experience more than a few minutes with my baby before he was whisked away. Birth was vacuum assisted and despite him being fine, the nurses insisted that he needed to spend the night in the NICU. They let me hold him for 5 minutes and then took him because the NICU team got tired of waiting. I had an epidural, so they wouldn’t let me go see him until he was about 4 hours old despite being able to move my legs around just fine. What really stung is when the doctor rounding in the NICU in the morning said “He’s a normal baby with a bump on his head. There’s no reason for him to be up here; send him back to his mother.”
Now that I’ve read this information, next time I’ll make sure to fight more for that time with my baby.
Lauren, This made me so sad to read. In defense of the majority of my sister labor nurses, most of us wouldn’t stand for that. However, I have worked with some sour pusses who care more about the policies then the person. UGH!!! This is my whole purpose in this blog. A patient needs to know exactly what is happening to make informed decisions.
Such a special time those moments. All the chaos and then calm. Lovely post.
Thank you! Yes, Chaos then Calm. I love it!
We are having an open adoption experience. I want to experience the golden hour but since I am not the birth mother how will I truly get the bonding you are describing? I will not be breastfeeding so please give me guidance on achieving the best results of this amazing moment .
Hey there, I am sorry I just saw this. You can ask the nurses to give you a room that the baby can be brought to you. I want you to also ask for a hospital gown. Take your shirt and bra off and do skin to skin with the baby immediately. If possible rub your hands on the baby and rub the amniotic and vernix onto your chest.
T
“Each birth I attend (which is many) is a reminder to me that God is perfect.” Yes, He is!!
I enjoyed reading this article and wish I had read this before my little ones were born. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thank you and you’re welcome. Maybe there is another little one in the future? lol!
Amazing post! The birth of a baby is undoubtedly a miracle and a blessing from God. I’m delighted and blessed to be even able to carry such a blessing in my womb. 🙂
Xoxo,
Kayla | Mommy Blogger | My Motherhood Made Easy
I know, I agree! It’s truly a gift.
Great Read! I didn’t get to experience the golden hour with my twins. But I did get to experience some of this with my son.
I’m guessing you had a c/s. We really need to up our game in C/s’s for skin to skin!
Wow. Such an amazing article. Reading it makes me actually so sad I couldn’t experience the golden hour with any of my babies. With my first son, it wasn’t possible as he was not breathing when born, so they took him away from me right away. The second son was put on my stomach just for a few minutes and then taken away for 2 hours 🙁
You’ve got an amazing job, thank you for all you do!
Eva
Eva, I am so sorry that this special time was taken from you. Shame on those nurses. But you shared a valid point that I should have shared. Sometimes there are reasons that skin to skin isn’t the best option. Like when your baby needs help. That’s why we are there. If a baby needs resuscitation or some emergency care. (Or mom) unfortunately many time we intervene Just for routine care. It needs to change.
This is amazing information. I had a C section, and although I didn’t have one of this type, lots of hospitals in the UK now let the baby crawl out themselves if requested
Wow! That’s incredible!!
This is so beautiful and I feel so blessed to have experienced this with all 4 of my babies. A respectful birth team makes all the difference – thank you for sharing this message! ❤️
I agree! I am so happy you had a good experience!
I ended up with an emergency c-section. If I would have known I was going to have that, I would have asked to have my son with me in the recovery room. Unfortunately, everything was crazy and sudden and this didn’t happen. My baby was with my husband for the entire first hour after his birth. He didn’t like me at all for the first few weeks. He only wanted his dad. Breastfeeding actually went totally fine (besides my lack of knowledge hindering us a bit), so I’m wondering if I got back just in the nick of time that he was still in that stage of interest before he got sleepy. I don’t know. But now he’s obsessed with me and clings to me all day as a toddler, so in the long run I’m not sure that it made much of a difference. I still hope that next baby I will get that precious hour 🙂
You did a beautiful job on this article.
Thank you! I’m very passionate about this topic!
I loved every word of this! I’ve had two natural births. It’s not easy but so so so worth it!
Such great advice! We brought a small strand of white Christmas lights to our delivery room and had the lights dimmed as much as possible. It was one of my favorite things! I love how you describe the gaze between mom and baby 🙂 This should definitely be taught to labor & delivery teams <3 Thank you!
I love the ideas of the Christmas lights. So magical!! Yes, I agree. It needs to be taught as an experience rather than a hospital visit.
The Golden Hour, aaaaaahhhhh, so beautiful! I’m so glad that providers protect this time when they’re able. The breast crawl you mentioned took me back to the time with my newborns. <3
I didn’t get to experience the breast crawl with any of my babies. I so wish I had!
Very informative post! I mean, I knew those moments immediately after birth were so important, but never realized just how important. I was fortunate that the hospital I delivered in immediately puts baby on your chest while they do all their post-delivery stuff. I was able to hold my son longer on my chest than my daughter, but it was still a wonderful time with both of them. My son came out with a good set of lungs and he did nurse pretty soon after birth. My daughter took longer, but it was still a wonderful experience. Everything is always so rushed so it is important to take our time and really soak in everything about your baby in those moments following birth!
I totally agree! I’m so glad you experienced skin to skin!! Many hospitals are getting on board and realizing it does, in fact, make the job easier.
I didn’t feel bad about not letting anyone see our son right after his birth. In fact, he was born at 10:00am, and we didn’t have anyone visit until 4 or 5 that evening. Just like that first hour, all those first hours are MY (and my husband’s) precious time with my brand new baby. Family can wait a few extra hours.
It really doesn’t hurt anyone to wait, does it? But moms are made to feel bad if they keep their room to themselves.
Soo glad that the hospital I delivered at had a policy in place to encourage skin to skin for the first two hours as long as it was medically feasible for baby to be placed with mom or even dad if a c-section was needed. I got to see my daughter wriggle around trying to find the boob and it was just so cool!! My boobs were just to big for her to get in position to latch but I shoved her on as best I could and we were good to go. I don’t think anyone was in the room but if they were I didn’t even realize it. Anytime I talk about it I just say it’s just like newborn puppies or kittens wriggling around.
That’s so awesome Lara! It’s amazing how a supportive hospital can make or break a birth experience.
When I had my third baby, the hospital staff really pushed this. It was confusing because when I had my first two, the nurses and doctors took the baby like a minute after I held them to get them all cleaned up and checked on and then let daddy and anyone else hold them, so I didn’t understand at the time why my husband couldn’t hold the baby, too, but this makes a lot of sense.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of the time, staff assumes that the patient understands the rationale behind things that happen during birth. Many times a better explanation can get everyone onto the same page!
Oh my goodness, I just bawled through this post! I had no idea about this until we did our hospital tour before birth. I always assumed you had the baby and in came all the visitors. To me it seemed to rude to keep them waiting. Now I fully understand that this has absolutely nothing to do with them. It’s all about your family. I wouldn’t give anything for the hour we had to ourselves, just our little family of 3. It was absolutely amazing! Thank you for writing this!
Beth, I am so glad you experienced first hand the beauty of the Golden Hour. I am so happy your hospital is on target with this!
I love this!!!! I hope labor nurses take it to heart and keep mothers and babies together after birth. What a great article!
Thank you, Hanna. I hope the same.
What if you have a C-section? It was an hour and a half before I was able to hold and feed my baby. I missed the “Golden Hour” with my beautiful daughter.
Aleshia,
Unfortunately, most hospitals are slow to realize that skin to skin can also be done in the OR. Unless there is an emergency, it should be a priority. Truthfully, it boils down to “routine” and a lack of willingness of the staff side, to change what they have always done. It fires me up that it is not considered guidelines to implement skin to skin for cesarean sections. It literally FIRES ME UP! But I tell everyone who asks me, INSIST! You have rights! Do not let antiquated policies steal the moments that matter.
I had an emergency C-section so they had to use the gas to put me out completely. Is it still possible for skin to skin when it’s done that way? I was able to have daddy do skin to skin with her, she just wasn’t able to nurse right away.
I would say yes it’s possible, but probably not happen often. It would require willing staff and voicing your desires ahead of time. I have done skin to skin in the recovery with a patient who had general anesthesia. I stood on one side and her husband on the other. Mom was completely unaware of the entire hour. But we honored her desires and the baby benefited from the skin to skin!
That is awful! Honestly, it saddens me that a woman who ends up with a c/s has to lose the precious blessings of birth. UGH!!!!
Thank you! Appreciate this information and article very much!
You’re welcome and thank you!
Such an amazing thing! I didn’t know all of this about the Golden Hour. I wish I did before I had my daughter, so I could understand what it’s really about. The nurses did do it with me, but they didn’t explain much about it. Thanks sharing!
I love to educate my patients. Birth is truly miraculous!
The only thing I really fought for was this hour and was so glad I did!
I am so glad you did too! It’s so important!
These are great information !
interesting ideas ! thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this! I wish more people would just back off after birth. I was able to birth at home for 3 of mine and what an experience they were! The 3 I had to have at the hospital were the most traumatic thing I have ever gone thru and I will forever feel robbed of what it’s supposed to be like. Keep on sharing this!!!
Golden hour is so magical and I am so thankful we got to experience with our 3 babies!!!
I had a double mastectomy and reconstruction done due to breast cancer at 27, now at 34 I will be having my first miracle baby. I obviously cannot breastfeed my baby. Should I expect any changes because of this? Does the baby need to eat right away? Can I still have the skin to skin with a bottle? Or will they insist she needs to eat and take her away? I’m not sure what to expect. I’ve also been told to prepare for the “shaming” I will get for not breastfeeding but it’s not an option for me. And I don’t know that breast milk banks are an option for me and I would question the source of the milk. I know there are benefits and I know it’s a good thing but I think it’s often overlooked that some women are not physically able to do it. But I know I want that time in the first hour for and me and her daddy to be with her.
Whitney,
First off, Congratulations on this miracle baby!!
Second, Yes, yes, yes, you can still enjoy the golden hour and it is just as important for you and your baby as a breastfeeding mom. You most likely won’t need to feed the baby then, but I would insist to feed the baby on your chest, skin to skin, when you do. It is important for thermo-regualtion and for bonding. If anyone isists she needs to eat, say ok, bring me the bottle. YOU ARE THE BOSS!!