We already know as mother’s how special skin-to-skin contact is with our beautiful baby, but what recent research has found is super interesting…

As a mum, you’d love to know that the gut microbiome plays an important role in supporting your little one’s health and development. The microbiome can even influence your baby’s brain and immune system development!

Starting from birth, you are your baby’s main source of microbes for their microbiome colonisation via vaginal delivery, breastfeeding, and skin-to-skin contact. 

This transition of bacteria will remain detectable even at older ages!

Your baby’s microbiome in early life is influenced by lots of different things in their environment (research has even shown that having a pet can influence it too!).

A study in 2023 was done on the effects of 1 hour of daily skin-to-skin contact from birth to 5 weeks of age, on the development of the baby’s microbiomes.

Here’s what the researchers found…

The skin-to-skin contact babies:

• Had lower microbiome volatility during early infancy (which is good because higher microbiome volatility is often found in babies with colic).

• Microbiome maturation was slower during the first year of life (which is good because faster microbiome maturation is often seen with exposure to antibiotics, C-section delivery and in asthma).

• Had higher levels of short chain fatty acid (SCFA) production - which is good because beneficial bacteria produce compounds called SCFA that enhance microbiome health and digestive health.

So it’s great to know that not only does giving our baby a cuddle feel good, but it also does great things for our baby’s health and development once they are born!

Read the full research article here.