We thank Dr Shaw and Dr Shridhar for their interest in our article. They provided evidence of the current low uptake practices of skin‐to‐skin contact (SSC) in India and highlighted the challenges faced by clinicians in implementing SSC after birth including lack of clinicians’ awareness, staffing, time constraints and safety concerns.1 Similarly, our observational study of the practice of SSC after birth in two major hospitals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, identified that SSC was not common and was not prioritised by clinicians.2 This observational study was one component of a larger mixed‐methods research project that aimed to understand the contemporary status of SSC through triangulating data from interviewing clinicians, observations of hospital practices and surveying mothers in Saudi Arabia.

Our observational study and interviews with clinicians indicated a lack of adherence to the hospitals’ policies about the practice of SSC and barriers faced by clinicians to SSC including lack of capabilities and motivation to implement the practice of SSC, lack of professional collaboration, staffing and time constraints, and a medicalised birth environment that prioritised interventions over SSC.2, 3 In addition, analysis of the mothers’ survey and the clinicians’ interviews demonstrated that while mothers held favourable perceptions towards SSC, clinicians were somewhat out of step with mothers’ desire to have SSC. Therefore, it is important for hospitals to develop and strengthen policies about SSC after birth and acknowledge mothers’ needs and feelings by facilitating SSC to achieve optimal outcomes for mothers and their infants.

It is also a critical time for the whole world to reinforce SSC policy and guidelines during the unprecedented situation of the COVID‐19 pandemic. In China, the initial recommendations were to completely separate newborn infants from mothers with confirmed or suspected COVID‐19 and to avoid breastfeeding. However, the World Health Organization recommends mothers with COVID‐19 infection should be encouraged to breastfeed and newborn infants kept with their mothers with precautions including maternal face mask and hand washing. SSC enables mother‐infant dyad bonding, provides initial colonisation of the baby's microbiota, increases exclusive breastfeeding and reduces mother's stress level which are highly needed in the current situation. Therefore, policies and guidelines should recommend clinicians to facilitate SSC practice after birth and educate mothers about benefits of SSC and potential risks of separation.