The Welcoming Hour
The Welcoming Hour, sometimes called the Golden Hour, begins as soon as your baby is born. Read below to find out what to expect and what you can do to get maxium benefits for you and your new baby during this first hour of your baby’s life.
In most hospitals,in a low-risk birth, your baby will be placed on your abdomen as soon as your baby is born. Once the baby’s umbilical cord is cut you can bring your baby up to your chest. While your care provider will be monitoring your bleeding, waiting for your placenta to be born, and beginning repair work, all of your attention will be on your beautiful new baby!
A great way to welcome your baby is to have your baby skin to skin with you, the birthing person, the entire first hour of life. Make sure your baby is directly against your skin. You may need help taking off a top or bra to get baby directly against your skin. You will then want to place a blanket or thin sheet over you and baby to help insulate baby’s warmth. This skin to skin contact will help your baby maintain and regulate their body temperature, regulate their blood sugar, and feel safe and secure. Plus, this skin to skin is good for you, too! Having your new baby skin to skin with you will promote the production of oxytocin, the love hormone, in your body. This will start strengthening to bonding process between you and your new baby. There is evidence’based research that spending a lot of time skin to skin with your baby actually changes your brain chemistry to help you parent a new child. It will also signal to your body that it’s time to start getting ready to breastfeed.
If you are planning to breastfeed your baby may begin showing signs of getting ready to latch during this first hour. You may see your baby sticking their tongue in and out, turning their head from side to side, smelling their hand and then rooting around, and generally bobbing towards one of your breasts. These are all signs that your newborn may be interested in trying to latch. If possible, try to let your baby mostly make their way towards your breast on their own. Believe it or not, new baby’s have an instinct to do something called a “breast crawl” once they are ready to latch. While a first latch let by your baby can be a good one, some baby’s may need support getting latched and you may need help with positioning your baby. Your labor nurse or your doula can help assist you with this initial latch. It’s very common for baby’s to latch on for a second and then pop on and off the breast at first, lick the nipple and/or areola. We often refer to this first hour into the first 24 hours as “lick and learn’. If your baby isn’t yet showing interest yet in the first hour that’s ok. Sometimes baby’s need a little longer to neurologically coordinate the actions of breathing, sucking, and swallowing before they are ready to latch.
Spend some time talking to your new baby. They have heard your voice, and your partner’s voice, for several months in utero so they will absolutely recognize this familiar and comforting sound. Somtimes, if baby is taking a little longer to transition with breathing, or is a little stunned from birth, hearing your voice seems to help them acclimate a little better to life outside the womb.
Of course, this is a great time to get some pictures! Your newborn will seemingly change every day so you’ll definitely want documentation of this first hour of life. This is a great job for your partner or your labor doula. Your labor and delivery nurse may also be happy to take some pictures for you.
The Welcoming Hour is a special time of meeting and bonding with your new baby. You worked hard to bring this baby into the world and this first hour with your baby makes it work all that hard work!