During and after birth

[Mrsmch123]

Hi can anyone give me a rough idea of what happens after birth. Obviously I know they wrap the baby and pass him to me but then what??who washes the baby?like a proper bath?dresses them?do I need to take blankets for him to be wrapped in? Anything that you really wished you knew?
Thank you for any advice.

I can only speak from my personal experience but the baby was placed straight on my chest with a hospital towel placed on top of him to keep warm, we had skin to skin for about 30 minutes whilst they gave me the injection to help me birth the placenta, delivered & examined placenta and then had a look at the "damage" and decided I had a second degree tear that needed stitching. So baby was passed to my partner for cuddles, whilst I moved onto bed with stirrups to get fixed, they then took him to get weighed, give him his Vitamin K injection and a quick check over to make sure he was okay (I was so high on gas and air whilst getting my stitches done this bit is a bit blurry). My partner then gave him a quick wipe over and got him into his first outfit, I finished getting stitched up, had a shower and got into some fresh PJs, midwife then brought in some painkillers, tea and toast for us both. That was that really... I loved my whole labour and birth experience☺️ take a blanket with you but mainly for journey home! Take more sleepsuits and vests than you'll think you need as you'll be surprised at the amount of leakages can happen! Good luck xx

If you want skin to skin the baby will be placed on your chest straight away without being wrapped or anything. I got stiched whilst she was still on me. They then take baby away to be wiped down, weighed then wrapped in a blanket. They don’t get an actual bath, you actually don’t bath them until the cord falls off. They will use hospital towels and blanket but take a couple of spare blankets for journey home and in case baby soils it. I got through 3 blankets in my two night stay.

My recent experience was basically the same as @anotherboyontheway but my midwife also ran me a quick bath post stitches and let me get cleaned up ready for bed (it was about 2am at this point). Then she helped me get all settled for bed before my partner left for some sleep at home. Had to buzz them a couple of times to change baby’s sheet as he spit up and I also needed nappy changing help.

Babies can be bathed before the cord falls off but you need to dry the cord carefully. Both my girls were bathed in hospital DD1 because we were in so long and DD2 when she was just over 24 hours old because she was too sleepy to feed and the midwife suggested it as a way of waking her up when the usual tricks weren’t working.