Exploring New Frontiers: Providing Skin-to -Skin Contact for Mothers and Newborns During Cesarean Deliveries

Fortin, Nora C.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Title: Exploring New Frontiers: Providing Skin-to -Skin Contact for Mothers and Newborns During Cesarean Deliveries

Woodrow Wilson (Gaylord National Harbor)

Nora C. Fortin, BSN, RNC-OB , Women and Children, Wentworth Douglass Hospital, Dover, NH

Discipline: Newborn Care (N)

Learning Objectives:

Describe the impact of cesarean sections on patient satisfaction with birth experience.
Analyze the barriers to providing skin-to -skin in the operating room.
Explain the benefits of skin-to-skin for the cesarean delivery patient and her newborn.

Submission Description:

Purpose for the program: As cesarean delivery rates increased in the United States in response to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists statement concerning Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBACs), studies demonstrate higher dissatisfaction with childbirth experiences. Women delivering by cesarean are more prone to postpartum depression, bonding difficulties and unsuccessful breastfeeding

Proposed change:

In order to increase maternal delivery satisfaction, we developed a plan to provide skin-to-skin contact during cesarean deliveries. The proposed change broke the barriers between the traditional surgical environment and the delivery room and required collaboration between surgical services, anesthesia, pediatrics and obstetrics.

Implementation, outcomes and evaluation: Informal surveys of patient satisfaction since implementation have been positive. A more formal evaluation of the process will include a review of newborn thermoregulation in the operating room and a postpartum survey of patient satisfaction.

Implications for nursing practice: This new service is an example of how nurses are empowered to question tradition in order to advocate for their patients.

Keywords: Skin-toSkin, Patient Satisfaction, neonatal thermoregulation