The power of touch: I didn't hold my daughter until she was three days old | Salamishah Tillet

I was afraid my inability to breastfeed her or engage in skin-to-skin contact would harm her, but I was also burdened by another history

Welcome to the Guardian’s Power of Touch series

I had to wait three days after my daughter Seneca was born to hold her. She arrived punctually just before sunrise on her due date, a fact I have interpreted as her over-accommodating me, because it enabled me to drive to UPS and mail off my tenure dossier on time.

Nine hours later, as my partner, Solomon, my sister, Scheherazade, and I drove to the hospital with a maternity bag filled with a lavender-scented eye mask, breastfeeding pyjamas and a white-noise machine, I noticed only a handful of cars on the highway, the glare of their headlights guiding us to the hospital, four suburbs and 30 minutes away from our New Jersey townhouse.

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