After Birth

Welcome baby! Enjoy this special time after your baby is born. Your baby is awake and alert for the first hour after birth and then usually falls into a deep sleep. This is a great time to breastfeed your baby for the first time and hold the baby skin-to-skin. Your provider, nurse, or birth sister can help your baby breastfeed for the first time. Expect to stay in your labor room for 1 to 2 hours after birth.

If it is safe, your baby will be placed on your bare chest immediately after birth. Keeping the baby there for at least an hour and as much as possible after birth will help with:

• Bonding.
• Breastfeeding.
• Keeping your baby warm and calm.

Your baby’s exam and medications can be done while he or she is on your chest. Your baby will be weighed after this first important hour.

If your baby needs to be helped by a pediatrician right after birth, he or she will be given back to you as soon as possible for skin-to-skin holding.

You and your baby will both go to your shared room down the hall, in the Mother-Baby Unit. Staff will provide you and your family with the best care possible during this very special time. Here, you’ll learn about your new baby and how to care for him/her, and yourself.

Your baby stays in your room with you all the time. This is known as rooming in. All the exams and tests will be done on your baby in your room. Rooming in helps your baby cry less and causes your baby less stress. It also helps with breastfeeding because you get to know your baby’s feeding cues.

Skilled Mother-Baby Unit nurses will work with you to complete all of the necessary steps to prepare you and your baby for a safe transition home.

• You might be due for some vaccinations, like Flu or MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella). We will review your records and share with you what we recommend. o Your nurse will fill out the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Food and Nutrition program form, if this is needed.
• If you are breastfeeding, we will provide you with information about breastfeeding support groups like Baby Café. More about BMC’s Baby Café is located at www.bmc.org/obstetrics/breastfeeding.
• If you are formula feeding, we will give you information about how to safely prepare infant formula.

When you and your baby are ready to leave BMC, your nurse will remove the security (HUGS) band from your baby.

For the Mother

• You might be due for some vaccinations, like Flu or MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella). We will review your records and share with you what we recommend. o Your nurse will fill out the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Food and Nutrition program form, if this is needed.
• If you are breastfeeding, we will provide you with information about breastfeeding support groups like Baby Café. More about BMC’s Baby Café is located at www.bmc.org/obstetrics/breastfeeding.
• If you are formula feeding, we will give you information about how to safely prepare infant formula.

When you and your baby are ready to leave BMC, your nurse will remove the security (HUGS) band from your baby.