Pediatria pre prax 6/2017

Postpartum bonding support as the starting point for the successful breastfeeding

The support of the bonding in the postpartum period, the culmination of which is the first infant breastfeeding, is the best way out to successful and long-term breastfeeding. The aim of the study was to find out the level of the immediate postpartum contact between mother and newborn, where and how the first sucking contact occurred and how breastfeeding continued further on. We made use of the exploratory questionnaire method to collect the inevitable data. The number of the participants reached 2001 women from Slovak Republic (aged 29.96 ± 5.34 years). The immediate postpartum contact was traced in 31.63% of women by skin-to-skin contact (to abdomen / chest) and in 12.69% of the women a newborn infant was attached to the breast. In most of the cases, the immediate contact lasted for only a short period of time. In 55.87% of the women the first sucking contact did not occur in the delivery room. The breast crawl was traced in 7.19% of the women. The breast crawl is a natural process that does not require special training for the health care professionals, only their willingness to promote postpartum bonding, and thus allow making better use of the time, in which a newborn begins to reveal his/her natural breastfeeding reflexes that are the basis for the proper breastfeeding technique.

Keywords: breastfeeding, skin to skin touch, postpartum bonding support, breast crawl