Skin on skin/ mother & baby not kept together Caesarean search - Melb

[jayejaye]

I was at cabrini (sorry i know you asked about public,but thought my experience might help!) and they encouraged skin on skin immediately, and straight on the boob, including in recovery. Agree with wysiwyg though, if its an emerg c section, they might not have a midwife to sit with you in recovery, so the baby might have to go to the nursery until you return to the ward. I had specifically enquired about all this before my planned c section, and wouldnt have gone through with it if it wasnt that way!! Cabrini were incredibly supportive of my c section, and it helped me deal with the birth far, FAR better than my vaginal birth with DS1.

Jane.

[Muraho]

I can't help on the Melbourne side of things, as we've just moved here, but thought I might add something.

You may *not* need to have a midwife with you in order to instigate breastfeeding/ensure baby stays with you in recovery.

I used to work at RBWH (Brisbane), in theatres; and we were all being upskilled to have neonatal resus and education on baby-led attachment, so that if a midwife was unable to stay with a mum once they had given birth (generally due to being out of hours, and understaffing on ward/birth suite); bub could remain with mum, knowing that someone was available to assist should there be need.

So might be worth just asking about the policy of skin-to-skin/breastfeeding post caesarean section; and see if they require a midwife to stay; or if they've upskilled their recovery/theatre staff like we did.

[feeb]

Most hospitals now in Melbourne TRY and keep mums and baby together in theatre and recovery when an elective cs. For an emergency cs this often does not happen. Most hospitals will not leave baby in recovery without a midwife with them.

I had 1 emerg and 1 elective cs. The elective cs I did just as you wanted and DS2 was with me in theatre, he then went with DH to the recovery room and I followed 2 mins after once they transfered me onto the bed, and he was on my chest or BF all the time and transfered to ward in bed with me. That was at Freemasons.

Good luck