Promoting Maternal-Newborn Bonding

Health care providers and nurses have the opportunity to promote the maternal-newborn bond through breastfeeding, encouraging skin-to-skin contact, newborn massage, and eye contact during the first postpartum hour. There are some barriers for the maternal-newborn bonding process that hospitals may have such as (preterm newborn, lack of support, a cesarean birth, maternal fatigue, and emotional stress). These barriers can be used by hospitals to evaluate strategies for overcoming it in a way that promotes bonding process and they should have protocols to include an hour of uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact after vaginal and cesarean birth in order to promote optimal maternal-newborn bonding.