[Experiencing skin to skin contact with the baby during the postpartum period as a mechanical act]. / Vivenciando o contato pele a pele com o recém-nascido no pós-parto como um ato mecânico.

The objective was to understand the puerpera's experience during the first skin to skin contact with the newborn in the immediate postpartum period, the obstetric ward of a public hospital in a city in Bahia. Exploratory, descriptive and qualitative study, approved by the Ethics Committee and conducted with fourteen postpartum women, through semi-structured interviews in the period July-August 2011. The data were analyzed using Grounded Theory, identifying the phenomenon "Experiencing skin to skin contact as a mechanical act" and its three subcategories: "Encouraging the only contact", "Contact as a mechanical act" and "Being forced to initiate breastfeeding. "Encouraging the skin to skin contact and immediate breastfeeding occur mechanically, being highlighted only the contact, requiring the puerperas to initiate breastfeeding in sudden and abrupt manner, not respecting their willingness to perform or not this practice.