The experience of cesarean birth can be frightening or
stressful to a mother who is strapped to the operating table,
and is unable to watch her baby enter the world (WHO &
UNICEF, 2009). Providing her with the opportunity to hold
her infant in STS contact soon after birth can provide a sense
of control and empowerment to the mother. With early STS
contact, the nurse does not instruct the mother how to feed
her infant or grab the mother’s breast and put it into the
infant’s mouth. Instead the focus is on the mother’s ability to
provide the perfect environment and stimulation for the infant’s
reflexes and self-regulation to come into play, which in
turn leads to successful breastfeeding initiation (Radzyminski,
2005). Parenting skills are strengthened as the mother
provides appropriate caregiving by merely holding the infant,
and in turn, the neurobehavioral development of the
infant is promoted (Ludington-Hoe & Swinth, 1996).
Early STS maternal–infant contact has become the
standard after vaginal birth, and there is no evidence that
suggests that it should not be extended to cesareans. The
Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative suggests that STS contact
should be provided for every healthy mother and infant
immediately after birth, or as soon as possible during the
first 30 minutes (WHO & UNICEF, 2009). Mooreetal.
(2007) did not find any negative outcomes from early maternal–infant
STS contact in a meta-analysis that reviewed
30 randomized-controlled trials involving 1925 mother–infant
pairs, including infants born by cesarean. In contrast,
there is evidence that the lack of early STS may be harmful.