Quality standard

Quality statement 7: Skin-to-skin contact

Quality statement 7: Skin-to-skin contact

Quality statement

Women have skin-to-skin contact with their babies after the birth.

Rationale

Skin-to-skin contact with babies soon after birth has been shown to promote the initiation of breastfeeding and protect against the negative effects of mother–baby separation.

Quality measures

The following measures can be used to assess the quality of care or service provision specified in the statement. They are examples of how the statement can be measured, and can be adapted and used flexibly.

Structure

Evidence of local arrangements to ensure that midwives and obstetricians encourage women to have skin-to-skin contact with their babies after the birth.

Data source: Data can be collected from information recorded locally by healthcare professionals and provider organisations, for example, from local protocols on skin-to-skin contact.

Process

Proportion of women with a record of having skin-to-skin contact with their baby after the birth.

Numerator – the number in the denominator where there is a record of them having skin-to-skin contact with their baby after the birth.

Denominator – the number of women who had a live birth.

Data source: The Maternity Services Data Set collects data on whether a mother had skin-to-skin contact with their baby within 1 hour of birth. Data can also be collected from information recorded locally by healthcare professionals and provider organisations, for example, from patient records.

Outcome

Women's satisfaction with the support received to have skin-to-skin contact with their baby after the birth.

Data source: Data can be collected from information recorded locally by healthcare professionals and provider organisations, for example, from patient satisfaction surveys.

What the quality statement means for different audiences

Service providers (all 4 birth settings) have protocols in place for midwives and obstetricians to encourage women to have skin-to-skin contact with their baby as soon as possible after the birth.

Healthcare professionals (midwives and obstetricians) encourage women to have skin-to-skin contact with their baby as soon as possible after the birth. If the woman is not well enough, healthcare professionals encourage her birth companion to have skin-to-skin contact instead.

Commissioners (integrated care systems) specify and check that service providers have protocols in place to ensure that women are encouraged to have skin-to-skin contact with their baby as soon as possible after the birth.

Women are encouraged to have skin-to-skin contact with their baby as soon as possible after the birth. If she is not well enough, her birth companion is encouraged to have skin-to-skin contact instead.

Source guidance

Intrapartum care. NICE guideline NG235 (2023), recommendation 1.11.7