Is that where it all starts really, this skin-to-skin benefit? Yeah.

Yeah that's where it starts yeah so that kind of first hour is known as the golden hour so people typically think skin to skin is just kind of done in that hour and then you kind of forget about it but the benefits long term are so important too so it can start within that first golden hour of course but it can also go on as far as into toddlerhood like if my Noah's not feeling very well or got a temperature I'm quite happy to do skin to skin so if he's happy to lay on me without his top on and be on my chest, then I will happily do that now.

So if he's not well and he's got a temperature, skin to skin, for example, one of the benefits is it can help regulate your temperature because they get the feedback from your skin.

That's interesting.

So if you think your baby's coming from your nice, warm, cosy womb space here in your heartbeat... and that's the feedback they're getting constantly to then out into this big open world, your chest is going to be the closest they can be to hearing that heartbeat and feeling that connection with you.

So putting them straight on your skin gets them feeling that closeness and that bonding starts straight away.

But also if you want to try breastfeeding, for example, It can help them kind of find where the breast is and get into that sort of position.

Is there a certain time that you should, like after the birth, that you should be doing this as a minimum for? Or is it just ongoing?

[laughs] Um, so Jade, I think to start, can you please just explain to us exactly what a postnatal doula is and how it differs from a, a doula?

Yeah, of course.

So doulas come in all shapes and sizes.

You can have birth doulas, death doulas, postpartum doulas, which is exactly what I trained as.

So a birth doula helps you prepare for and during your birth.

Um, and just purely because of having my two and a half year old, I just didn't like the idea of being on call for births.

So that's why I trained as a postnatal doula.

Mm