The Bellambi mother was anxious enough having two unplanned Caesarean births at Wollongong Hospital, but to be denied that initial skin-to-skin contact with her newborns was devastating.

Skin-to-skin contact – or kangaroo care – is recommended by health experts including the World Health Organisation due to its benefits for bonding and breastfeeding.

However a recent survey by Better Births Illawarra has found that 89 per cent of women who underwent Caesareans at Wollongong Hospital said they had been separated from their newborns during recovery.

Only 29 per cent of women who had C-sections had immediate skin-to-skin with their baby for an average of three to five minutes.

Read more: Seven out of 10 women denied access to midwifery program

“The really disturbing part was that the women surveyed said that separation in many cases lasted longer than two hours,” advocacy group president, Giselle Coromandel, said.

“One in five of those women reported being diagnosed with post-natal depression … nine out of 10 reported feeling anxious and stressed.

“While a small percentage of babies need to go to intensive care, the mothers of the other babies were not given any explanation as to why they were being separated.”

Having been unable to have skin-to-skin contact with her little girl Sophia, now two years old, Ms Klevjer said she’d done everything in her power to experience that with son Judah, now 11 months.

“I went through Wollongong Hospital’s midwifery group practice program the second time and made my preferences known,” she said.

“In the event of a C-section, I told them I wanted delayed cord clamping, skin-to-skin contact and I didn’t want to be separated from my baby in recovery.

“However despite trying to advocate for myself, my wishes for my birthing experience were overruled on the day.”

Ms Klevjer said she was not given any explanation for the lack of contact, but believes ongoing staffing issues in the hospital’s maternity unit are to blame.

“No-one wants to be separated from their baby – and there was no medical reason, there just wasn’t enough staff to facilitate it,” she said.

“I was already traumatised both times by having to have unplanned C-sections and being separated from my babies, and my partner Adam, just added more stress.

“I wasn’t able to breastfeed either child for hours, and while I didn’t go on to have any long-term issues with breastfeeding, I did feel a lot of grief about my birthing experiences.”

Ms Coromandel said the advocacy group had met with hospital management last week, and received verbal assurances that measures would be taken to increase skin-to-skin.

Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District Clinical Co-director Maternity and Women’s Health, Dr Henry Murray, said these measures included educating more staff on the hospital policy.

“Skin-to-skin exposes babies to bacteria from the mother which helps boost their immune system, and it’s also important for establishing breastfeeding,” he said.

“So all the midwives aim to facilitate this contact; unfortunately sometimes there’s competing problems – the mum may be sick or the bub may need to be reviewed by a paediatrician for instance.

“However we are educating staff in operating theatres, in recovery and other areas that our protocol is to enable skin-to-skin where possible.”

Dr Murray said the hospital was also trying to ensure that all Caesareans were conducted in the one theatre – so staff were aware of the policy. And they were in the process of employing a midwife specifically to assist women undergoing Caesareans.

“Because you can’t leave a mother and baby alone in recovery – in case the baby is unwell or the mother falls asleep for instance,” he said.

According to the NSW Mothers and Babies 2016 report, just over 15 per cent of births at Wollongong Hospital were elective Caesareans, and 13 per cent were emergency C-sections.