Mums who give birth by c-section usually have to wait anything up to a half an hour before they can hold their newborn for the first time, due to concern over maintaining a sterile, surgical environment.
Which is, as you’ve probably guessed, an agonising wait for an impatient mum who just wants to meet her baby.
Thankfully, that could soon become a thing of the past - thanks to a VERY clever invention by three determined midwives.
“When mum gets to hold that baby for the first time on her chest, it is just unbelievable, that experience"
With over 50 years of combined labour and delivery nursing experience, Kimberly Jarrelle, Deborah Burbic and Jess Niccoli have seen a lot of babies being born - and they’ve always wanted to help encourage skin-to-skin contact between mums and their newborns.
“We were doing skin-to-skin and seeing how empowering that was to mothers,” Deborah told the Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper.
“When mum gets to hold that baby for the first time on her chest, it is just unbelievable, that experience.
“We were going, ‘How could we make this happen in the operating room?’”
Their desire to help mums and babies bond encouraged them to invent a unique C-section drape, which allows the baby to be passed through to the mother immediately, without compromising anyone’s safety.
Watch it in action below:
That’s incredible, isn’t it?
Usually, when a C-section is carried out, a surgical drape is placed over the mother, like a curtain, and blocks her view of the baby being born.
The baby is then cleaned and often put in a warmer, because operating rooms are kept chilly, before being handed to mum.
This new C-section drape, as you can see in the footage, features a flap that opens like a window to allow the doctor to pass the baby through.
The flap then is closed, maintaining the sterility of the surgical site as the doctor sutures the uterus and incision.
Incredible, huh?
“Women today want their birth the way they want it,” Deborah said. “A C-section is a bump in the road for some people.
“For some reason, they cannot have a baby vaginally. They have to have a C-section and they get all down in the dumps, because they know that this big drape comes up, they don’t get to see their baby being born like a vaginal delivery.
“This is one way we can break that barrier.”
Would you want to use this clever invention during your c-section?
Let us know via Facebook or Twitter (@CloserOnline) now.