Health Tip: Holding Your Infant Skin to Skin

Skin-to-skin contact is comforting for newborns, who are still adjusting to the world around them. Even with just a few minutes of skin-to-skin care (holding an undressed baby next to your bare skin) can offer big benefits.

The American Academy of Pediatrics mentions these potential rewards:

• Increased warmth for baby.
• A more stable heartbeat and steadier breathing.
• An increase in deep sleep time.
• Less crying.
• More weight gain.
• An increased desire to breast-feed.