The internet has been praising a young boy after a photo was posted online of him helping his father provide skin-on-skin care for newborn twins.
The image was posted online to NINO Birth’s Facebook Page and quickly gained traction across social media.
NINO stands for Neuroscience for Improved Neonatal Outcomes, and the page passionately advocates the positive effects of skin-on-skin care for newborn babies.
“Putting your newborn baby skin-to-skin on your chest-at birth makes all the difference between feeling safe or unsafe,” the group explains on Facebook.
“Here baby is warmed, and heart and lungs work best. The baby can find the breast and latch on.”
The image was captured in Hvidovre Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark and has since received over 26,000 shares.
Alongside the photo, NINO’s Facebook page explained that the practice of taking premature babies out of incubators for skin-on-skin contact with parents “is not ‘new’.”
“But,” it adds, “Sweden certainly leads the way in making this care family-friendly even for very tiny babies.”
Lots of people quickly leapt to the comments to commend the boy, and the hospital for allowing him to help.
One woman wrote, “I love this pic that big bro is involved of the care of the twins. Big bro won’t feel left out but an actual part to help his parents and siblings.”
“Other kids might feel left out and helpless when they can’t be part of this. So my hat off to the hospital and to big bro.”
It’s such a simple and sweet way to let the older sibling feel part of the whole thing, rather than risk feeling replaced.
Swedish Professor Uwe Ewald passionately defended the premise of skin-on-skin contact alongside the photo.
He was quoted as saying, “The parent’s chest regulates the temperature better than an incubator. Skin to skin contact helps the baby to breathe better. The child becomes more calm and gains weight faster.”
Plenty of parents took to the comments to attest to how important skin-on-skin time is for the parents as well.
For a lot of premature babies it can be difficult to have skin-on-skin time with their parents due to their frail condition. However, it would appear that more and more hospitals are exploring the benefits of skin-on-skin contact.
NINO advocates for a lot of different treatments when it comes to child birth, including home births.
Recently, the page shared a post which claimed, “Hospital birth procedures often deny mothers their natural ability to give birth, a normal, healthy, natural part of life.”
In another post they went on to write, “Humans have been giving birth successfully for millennia, otherwise as a species we would have died out!”
” Why is it then that many women have been persuaded by their doctor that they have ‘lost’ this capacity?”
However, the page did understand that some women need to have cesarean births for health reasons.
It’s photos like these which show that the internet can be used to spread more than just memes and anger.
Having a child can be a terrifying experience, and so anything that can be done to help make a parent and their child feel more connected and help them both through that difficult time is truly wonderful.
RELATED STORIES
And if that connection can also be felt by the older sibling, that’s even more amazing.
As an adult, you can look at the amount of work and stress that’s involved in having a newborn and understand why mom or dad would have less time for their first child, but when you’re that child, it can be confusing.
Finding small ways to bring them into the fold and make a huge difference.
