Feeding your newborn

Immediate skin-to-skin contact helps regulate newborns’ body temperature and exposes them to beneficial bacteria from their mother’s skin. These good bacteria protect babies from infectious diseases and help build their immune systems. Skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth until the end of the first breastfeeding has many other benefits as well. It has been shown to increase the chances that babies are breastfed, to extend the length of breastfeeding, and also to improve rates of exclusive breastfeeding.

Giving newborns liquids or food other than breastmilk in the first days of life is common in many parts of the world, and is often linked to cultural norms, family practices or hospital policies and procedures that are not based on scientific evidence. These practices vary by country and may include throwing away colostrum – a mother’s “first milk” rich in antibodies – or having a doctor or elder family member give the newborn specific liquids or foods, like formula, sugar water or honey. These practices can delay a baby’s first critical contact with his or her mother.