Hospital worker explains why parents pay to hold their newborns

Days after the post went viral, a Canadian doula wrote a message on Facebook explaining the charge. A doula is a woman who is trained to assist another woman during childbirth and who may provide support to the family after the baby is born.

"During a caesarean, many people become shaky, nauseous, uncomfortable, even faint. These are normal physiological reactions. In order to facilitate skin to skin in the OR, an extra nurse needs to be available to assist," Meaghan Grant wrote. "And before people scream that 'there's a nurse for the baby,' there is, but that nurse has other responsibilities in the OR. They aren't either holding the baby or twiddling their thumbs. So yes, an extra nurse is needed."

Grant, who said she works on an advisory board at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, said nurses are often hospitals' "biggest budget item" and "their time and their presence ... should be valued."

One Reddit user who claimed to be a nurse first explained the charge, commenting on Grassley's post saying: "I didn't know that hospitals charged for it, but doing 'skin to skin' in the operating room requires an additional staff member to be present just to watch the baby. We used to take all babies to the nursery once the NICU team made sure everything was OK. 'Skin to skin' in the OR is a relatively new thing and requires a second labor and delivery RN to come into the OR and make sure the baby is safe."

A representative at Sunnybrook confirmed Grant's post, telling The Huffington Post, that "In the case of a C-section, where the bedside caregiver is occupied caring for the mother during surgery, an additional nurse is brought into the OR to allow the infant to remain in the OR suite with the mother."