Participants were provided care in different rooms, blinded to the differences in practice used between the two groups. Skin-to-skin contact was applied to the babies of the women in this group for 5 minutes immediately after birth. After the application, routine follow-up and care of the newborn was performed and kept under a radiant heater. When the woman became stable, her baby was given and breastfeeding was supported.

Participants were provided care in different rooms, blinded to the differences in practice used between the two groups. Skin-to-skin contact application was initiated to the babies of the women in this group immediately after birth and was applied continuously for 60 minutes as recommended by WHO. Follow-up and care of the newborn were done during the application. At the end of 60 minutes, the baby was dressed and given to its mother.

Skin-to-skin contact is defined as placing a naked baby on the mother's bare stomach or breast for at least one hour immediately after birth. The women in this group received 5 minutes of skin-to-skin contact as a clinic routine.

Women's fears after childbirth were evaluated with the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire Version B version (W-DEQ-B).

This scale was developed by Wijma et al (1998) for fear after childbirth. The Turkish validity and reliability of the scale were performed by Korukcu et al. (2016). This scale consisting of 33 items is a 5-point Likert-type. The positive-meaning items are scored in reverse order. Therefore, the scores ranged from 0 to 165. The scale has no cutoff score, and high scores indicated higher fear.

Birth trauma of women were evaluated with the City Birth Trauma Scale. City BiTS was developed by Ayers et al., (2018) to measure birth trauma. The Turkish validity and reliability of the scale were performed by Bayrı Bingöl et al. (2021). The scale is a fourpoint Likert-type instrument composed of 29 items. Higher scores reflect greater risk for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The Cronbach's alpha for the original scale was measured as .92 (Ayers et al.,2018) and Turkish version was measured as 0.91 (Bayrı Bingöl et al., 2021). In this study, 6-8 days after birth to determine whether they meet the criteria for birth trauma and birth-related PTSD.

Maternal attachment of women was evaluated with the Maternal Attachment Inventory.

MAI, was developed by Muller (1994) to measure maternal attachment. The Turkish validity and reliability of the scale were performed by Kavlak et al. (2009). This scale consisting of 26 items is a 4-point Likert-type (4 = every time to 1 = any time). The scores ranged from 26 to 104 and high scores indicated higher maternal attachment. The Cronbach's alpha for the original scale was measured as .76 - .85 at different time (Muller, 1994) and Turkish version was measured as 0.77 (Kavlak et al., 2009). In this study, 6th to 8th postnatal days were used to measure maternal attachment.