The importance of Skin to Skin

Touch is an often overlooked sense, yet one which is incredibly powerful in the bonding between parent and child. Ashley Montagu wrote about this in his acclaimed book "Touching: the Human Significance of the Skin" in 1971.

In the 1990s Nils Bergman, a Swedish specialist in perinatal neuroscience, studied skin to skin contact between mother and baby in the neonatal period and introduced the concept of "Kangaroo Care" into neonatal intensive care units (NICU) to complement or even replace incubation for preterm infants. He had observed the practice in South American communities who could not afford this expensive equipment yet kept their most vulnerable babies alive and thriving.

Also in the 1990s, another Swedish researcher Ann-Marie Widstrom studied the innate abilities of newborn infants to seek the breast instinctively when left uninterrupted after birth, in what became known as  “the nine stages of newborn instinctual behaviour” or as parents often know it: the breast crawl.

US IBCLCs Dr Christina Smillie and Suzanne Coulson popularised baby-led attachment and laid-back breastfeeding (also known as biological nurturing) in the early 2000s and changed how mothers and professionals approach latching, with the baby taking the lead and mothers allowing them the skin contact they need to navigate to the breast instinctively, even months after birth.

Mothers and those supporting them have had to relearn the secrets of skin contact in this modern world. Science has identified and named behaviour lost to maternal and infant care, as it was institutionalised in the 20th century. Mammals keep their babies close because it keeps them alive: regulating temperature, stimulating breathing and supporting frequent breastfeeding. Separating the mother-baby dyad - through rigid management strategies of schedules and independence - makes no sense biologically.

#babywearing keeps babies where they want - and need - to be.