Bathing newborns after delivery...

[dejags]

I have been told that our hospital has a policy of not bathing newborns at all after delivery. They strongly advocate skin-to-skin contact immediately post delivery and trying to breastfeed straight away.

Before anybody misunderstands - I think that skin-to-skin contact is wonderful and very important in the bonding process and to get breastfeeding established. However I do have concerns for my husband - he is not great with "blood & guts" and to be honest neither am I.

When my last child was born we were given an hour or so with him to cuddle him and get to know him - then the midwife gave him a quick wash, dressed him in his snuggly new babygro and gave him back to us for more cuddles. He wasn't very messy at birth but still had blood in his hair etc so I was quite pleased about this.

I saw a friend who has recently delivered her baby in the same hospital and she tells me that she couldn't wait to get home to bath him because he was smelly...

Does anybody know if you can ask for your baby to be bathed after birth in your birth plan - or even if the midwives are rushed if my DH can do it?

Dejags - the hospital mat recommend no bathing but it is your choice what you do as it is your baby. Our hospital does bath babies but not immediately after birth so that the baby does not get cold. We also recommend bathing in water only for the first 2-4 weeks of life as manufactured products can cause skin rashes, eczema and cradle cap etc. which you can read about in the link.
skincare

I know our reactions to blood etc is is an instinctive and very personal thing but, just in case a different perspective is useful...(and at risk of sounding downright weird!) when dd1 was born she wasn't very messy but she did have a bit of blood in her hair, and she didn't get a bath for several days. And all I could think of for those few days was how "right" she smelled. She smelled of me, of her, of birth, of life. not of Johnson's baby-bath. To my mind it was a wonderful, powerful, emotional smell. (and, after about 24 hours of her being born you couldn't see any blood anyway).

with dd1 they cleaned her up with a towel, then gave her to dh whilst they stitched me up as i tore badly. i didnt have any skin to skin contact with her, and held her after about an hour. she was bathed the following day, and they put loads of bubbles in her bath. if i knew what i know now about skin problems etc (dd's both have moderate to severe ezcema), then i would have refused the bubbles.
with dd2 she was delivered straight into my arms, where they placed a blanket over her to keep her warm and she breast fed straight away. they didnt even weigh her at this point and no-one had checked if i had a daughter or a son. she had a bit of blood in her hair, but not really any other gunk anywhere. I bathed her a couple of days later, but didnt use any soap on her.

with this baby, i'm gonna be doing the same as with dd2.

Thanks - didn't think we would bath the baby immediately after birth and I wasn't planning to use any sort of soap products on him. I will probably be staying a couple of days to get BF established so am relieved to hear that it I will be able to bath him during this time.

DD was handed to me on a towel all gunky she smelt amazing we couldn't stop sniffing her, midwife dressed her after about half an hour.

She didn't get bathed until the next day to wake her up but also cos we asked for a demonstration, they asked if we had bath wash or anything but I said just water please on MN recommendation.

The lovely newborn smell is gone now

midwife bathed dd1 - with dh - because she was up to the eyeballs in meconium. dunno about dd2, i had a general, but assumed she was bathed too. must ask dh.

I completely agree with Hatter, the hospital was desperate to bath my dd however we refused as she smelt so gorgous and just as Hatter described. She eventually had a bath at about 7 days old, my dh and I were so sad to wash off her newborn smell. She came out pretty clean though, just a little bit of vernix inbetween her toes. My wonderful midwife gently wiped her down with a towel when she was on my tummy.
mit x

How you react to gunk and stuff is very personal, and there is no reason why your baby shouldn't be bathed after birth - though with just plain water is best.

When ds was born he was delivered on to me - as I had specified in my birth plan - and both of us were covered with a blanket. At some point the midwives took him away and bathed him; oddly enough I don't remember being asked whether that was what I wanted, but in any case I was so wowed and overjoyed by everything that I didn't care. I think that they only used water because he still smelled new, not soapy, and there was still some gunk in his hair when he was returned to me fully dressed.

With dd I didn't want her to be bathed, but wasn't bothered enough about it to put that in my birthplan. I would have refused had the midwife offered to bath her, but instead she asked dh if he wanted to give dd her first bath, and I could not refuse him that. He didn't use any soap, just plain water, and she still smelled new afterwards.

Ohhh the memories of their new smells ...ds smelled like spicey biscuits to me, and dd smelled lemony.

my Ds was bathed about 5 hours after being born, me and Dp did it in the hospital while a nurse watched over us, she put johnsons baby bath stuff in the water, and my son has wonderfull skin