Standard care routines had hindered opportunities for STS and breastfeeding in the firth 1 to 2 hours after cesarean birth in our institution. Labor nurses and nursery nurses share responsibllities for caring for mothers and their infants born by cesarean. The mother is cared for by a labor nurse who provides preoperative care, circulates in the OR during the cesarean, and helps the mother to recover in the postpartum room. Previously, a nursery nurse would care for the infant in the nursery until after the mother returned to the postpartum room for recovery, and lack of communication between the nursery nurse and the labor nurse lengthened the mother-infant separation. Furthermore, we hypothesized that woman frequently go along with hospital routine and do not feel empowered to ask for their infans soon after cesarean birth when they have not had contact with them.
The birth center’s Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) identified the need to align post-cesarean care with established Baby-Friendly principles by making systematic changes to minimize mother-infant separation and support early STS contact and Breastfeeding initiation.Working in collaboration with the nursing staff and medical team, the Perinatal CNS and a perinatal CNS student spearheaded the effort of implementing early STS contact after casaream birth with the aim of increasing the success of breastfeeding initiation for these mother-infant pairs.