THE POSTNATAL WARD

Healthy Babies

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When assessing babies who turn out to be well, there is no need to interfere with the breastfeeding support they should be receiving. Remember that NICE Guidance recommends that all mothers

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• Initiate breastfeeding as soon as possible after birth, ideally within one hour

• Are encouraged to have skin-to-skin contact with their babies as soon as possible after birth

• Are advised to have unrestricted breastfeeding frequency and duration

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An understanding of feeding cues will be helpful:

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Skin to skin contact in healthy late-preterm and term babies is associated with improvement in all measures of breastfeeding, including breastfeeding for more than 2 months longer than the control group.

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NICE Guidance recommends that "healthcare professionals should have sufficient time, as a priority, to give support to a woman and baby during initiation and continuation of breastfeeding"

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Note that Public Health England recommends that all exclusively breastfed babies take a vitamin D supplement from birth, as a precaution.