What are the benefits of skin-to-skin contact with your baby? | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

As a Purcellville, VA area photographer, some of our favorite baby pictures involve skin-to-skin contact. These are some of the most beautiful and intimate portraits we create of a parent (or parents) and their baby.

A fine art portrait reflecting a mother or father holding and touching their newborn baby as they gaze at the little face is priceless. It is an aesthetic that we as a baby photographer strive to capture because it captures the truest spirit of parental love. We know that these portraits are a symbol of love to be treasured for many years.

Skin to skin contact, however, goes beyond beauty and intimacy. The medical community has long championed the benefit of skin-to-skin contact, especially for preemies and newborns. Since first looked at in a groundbreaking study in Bogotá, Colombia in the 1970’s, a number of studies have concluded that there are numerous benefits, especially to preemies, including but not limited to:

– lowers stress in the baby
– lower rates of infection
– lower rates of death
– stabilizes weight for low-birth weight infants
– better breastfeeding rates
– helps with bonding

A 2014 ABC News report highlighted how one hospital in California uses volunteers to cuddle infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The program is particularly beneficial for those babies who spend a long time in the NICU. It can be difficult for working parents to spend long hours at the hospital holding their newborn baby. Instead, the volunteers hold and cuddle these delicate little babies, and the baby’s breathing and heart rates relax just from being held! The infants benefit in extraordinary ways from the power of human touch.

As a baby photographer, we often witness the power of touch and the effect it can have on babies we’re photographing. Capturing that moment between parent and child is an honor and something we cherish. Moreover, those are the portraits that parents treasure.

Whether we are doing your child’s baby pictures in the Purcellville, VA area or you are doing the pictures yourself at home, we strongly encourage you to capture a few of that skin-to-skin intimacy. There is no stronger image of the love you feel for your baby than that!
 

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer, Baby Pictures

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located near Purcellville, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits, including newborn and baby portraits. Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.

Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

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