At East Cheshire NHS Trust all of our midwives and maternity assistants are committed in helping you to build a close and loving relationship with your baby and provide you with information to make an informed choice about how you wish to feed your baby.
During your pregnancy your midwife will explore your thoughts and feelings around feeding and caring for your baby. We will provide you with information throughout your pregnancy to help you make informed choices and to get breastfeeding off to the best possible start.
Below are some information videos for you to watch. These are designed to be watched at any point in your pregnancy or after your baby is born and can be viewed in any order. Your midwife will take the opportunity to show you some of these videos at certain appointments throughout your pregnancy journey.
If you have any questions after you have watched any of these videos please speak to your midwife at your next appointment who will be happy to answer any of your questions.
Connecting with your baby
Building a close and loving relationship with your baby starts during pregnancy. Building this relationship gives your baby the best possible start in life. You can start to build this relationship during your pregnancy by responding to your baby’s kicks, talking, reading, or singing to your bump. You can encourage partners and siblings to do the same. Once your baby is born keep them close so you can start to recognise their signals for food, comfort, and love. Responding to your baby will help them feel happy and secure, releasing oxytocin, which helps their brain to grow.
The following videos and leaflets discuss getting to know your baby and setting a firm foundation to build a close and loving relationship.
The leaflet ‘Building a happy baby: A guide for parents’ and the video ‘Breastfeeding and relationship in the early days’ provide more detail about building a loving relationship with your baby.
Skin to Skin contact
Skin to skin is the practice of your baby being laid directly on your bare chest. Following the birth of your baby we encourage you to hold your baby in skin to skin for at least one hour or until after the first feed, whichever feeding method you choose. Skin to skin contact is not just limited to birth and can take place at any time including when your baby needs comfort, wishes to feed, you need to boost your milk supply or you would simply like to cuddle your baby.
If your baby is in the neonatal unit following their birth skin to skin also provides many benefits which include, improving oxygen saturations, assisting with growth and may reduce their length of stay in hospital.
The information and videos below explore the benefits of skin-to-skin contact after your baby is born and why this is important.
For further information about the benefits of skin to skin contact with your with your baby you can visit the ‘Baby Friendly Initiative’ website and watch the ‘Meeting baby for the first time’ video.
The value of breastfeeding
This video looks at the value of breastfeeding and the health benefits it offers to both you and your baby. You do not need to decide about how you want to feed you baby until your baby is born.
You can find more information about the value of breastfeeding for both maternal and infant health by visiting the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative website.
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