These are all known secondary sources that write headlines to shock, scaremonger and, therefore, sell papers and drive hits up. I worked in journalism and those are not primary sources to support a claim parents kissing newborns (or grandparents) is a big enough risk to mean people shouldn’t do it (unless you/they have a cold sore). You need to be posting actual studies and, even then, be looking critically at them. Equally, be suspicious of privately funded medical services releasing information from those who may not be qualified to give it. Different countries health information also differs based on the issues within that country. For herpes in neotates, ‘In the UK, the stated incidence is low at 1.65 per 100 000 live births, which is in contrast with an incidence of 33 per 100 000 in the USA.’ So the USA is more anxious about it and advice sometimes differs there. However, the Association here believes we should stop scaremongering mothers as the rates are so low and babies have natural protection against it.
We know from Covid you have to be a good distance away to not share droplets of salvia in the air, we also know how important close contact like skin to skin is for babies - kissing on the top of the head or holding a baby but not kissing them makes no real difference to whether they catch the majority of illnesses. We know face to face interactions are important, these can’t happen without being close enough to pass any infectious illness that spreads through aerosol transfer on. Kissing a baby on the lips, especially for parents and siblings, is a natural and hormonally driven response encouraging both of you to bond and have that face to face interaction that’s key to us as social beings. Can you remove it and still do face to face interaction and bond closely? Yes, of course. Will it prevent your child catching someone’s virus or similar? No, because if they are close to the baby, they are within the range that the baby may pick something up.
Yes, it’s perfectly normal for a new mum to have those feelings, but part of that is hormones in overdrive. Sometimes these go further than is realistic. Obviously, totally OP’s choice is grandparents kiss baby, but it’s part of us being social. Parents not kissing a baby is still a choice, but it’s normal (hormonally and psychologically) and loving to kiss them. Obviously, if as a grandparent or friend you have a cold sore or similar, you don’t kiss them while it’s contagious.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh1054 - Early concepts of intimacy: Young humans use saliva sharing to infer close relationships (weirder one, but you get the drift)
scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=importance+skin+to+skin+in+babies+early+relationship&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1676766154821&u=%23p%3Dsd8-m9R8DxkJ -
one of the studies on importance of skin to skin
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1355184120301770 - discusses implications of reduction in face to face contact in babies and those around them due to Covid
scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=baby+face+to+face+++&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1676766928669&u=%23p%3DmYBqw_5fZi8J - touches on face to face in context of secure attachment and also adds mother encouraging responsiveness plays a large role
scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=the+importance+of+kissing+your+baby&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1676767416865&u=%23p%3Dq_nnyS_hwhIJ - absence of kissing/hugging seems to correlate with less healthy attachment patterns (this is also mothers comfortable with less bodily contact overall though)