Skin-to-skin contact is 
                 A PLACE

SSC is a place where CARE is provided!  Our *care* does not change… it is a place where any *care* we give works with our biology.

Skin-to-skin contact is 
                 OUR BIOLOGY

It is the only place in which newborns have survived for the last million years, and developed toward optimal health.

Skin-to-skin contact is 
                 IN OUR DNA

Our DNA, our genes, are adapted to this PLACE, the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA).

Skin-to-skin contact is 
                 RIGHT SENSATIONS

The DNA makes a brain that is able to take in expected sensations: mother provides the first sensations that make the brain work well.

Skin-to-skin contact is
                 NEUROSCIENCE

Birth is a *critical period* - it is the earliest sensations that fire the earliest essential brain pathways, both in the baby and the mother.

Skin-to-skin contact is
           BASIS for BREASTFEEDING

SSC makes the brain feel safe, which makes an approach orientation toward the breast; and then also ensures sleep cycling between meals.

Skin-to-skin contact is 
                 *NORMAL*

In our western culture we separate mothers and babies; SEPARATION  is highly ABNORMAL to baby’s biology, genes and brain.

Skin-to-skin contact is 
            OPPOSITE of SEPARATION

Separation is the WRONG PLACE … the physiology is dysregulated, the DNA must adapt, and the brain loses  its resilience.

Skin-to-skin contact is 
                EVIDENCE BASED

Our culture separates mothers and babies ONLY because it is seen as *normal*.  There is evidence that separation  produces HARM.

Skin-to-skin contact is 
                 FOR ALL NEWBORNS

Skin-to-skin contact for healthy newborns therefore means ZERO SEPARATION from birth.

Skin-to-skin contact is 
            SPECIALLY for PRETERMS

The more premature a newborn is, the less resilience it has, the more it needs skin-to-skin contact. (But the more we separate ... )

Skin-to-skin contact is 
                 BASED  ON MOTHER

Mothering is biology ... and that biology sees the mother and infant as a DYAD, a single unit.  SSC is good for mother’s brain and body also !

Skin-to-skin contact is 
                 GOOD FOR FATHERS

Fathers can and should do SSC. The more premature the baby, the more skin-to-skin is needed, the more father should help.

Skin-to-skin contact is
              *SAFE* - BUT DO SAFELY

Everything we do must be done safely – skin-to-skin contact is *the safest* for any baby … but must be done safely – TECHNIQUE  matters.