newborn babies and hats

[cjfromauckland]

Hi all,

I finally had my baby earlier today by C-section at 39+1 weeks, and did skin to skin (he's beautiful!). The midwife then put a hat on him before swaddling and putting him down to sleep, but I was told at my antenatal class NEVER to put baby to sleep with a hat on because of overheating risk, so I'm now confused, slightly worried, and sick of getting conflicting advice from medical staff about all things baby.

Hospital midwife says that it's because newborns can't regulate their body temperature and need to stay warm.

For the record, I'm in New Zealand, and it's summer here. I don't know the room temperature, but I've only got my hospital gown on and I'm hot. My husband is in a t-shirt with a sheet. Can't sleep so watching baby napping and trying to decide whether he looks as comfortable as his daddy.

Does anybody know whether it's true about newborns and hats?

Thanks in advance,

Love, CJ

Congratulations on your new baby!

Mine was born during a heatwave and the hospital was hotter than hell but she worse a hat for the first day or so. I don’t think she wore it after that and definitely didn’t wear it once we got home.

Congratulations. In the UK they always wear a hat in the (boiling) hospitals for the exact reason your MW says. Mine was in for a few days as C-Section, he wore for the whole time and in the car home, and then once you get home they never wear it indoors again.

My little one wore a hat when they was really brand new too. My guess was that they’ve just came from being really warm and toasty in the womb and need a bit of time to adjust (I could be wrong). But once we got home we didn’t have a hat on him unless we was going out for a walk or outside.

Same as PP, both my DDs wore hats in hospital (one born in a heatwave, the other it snowed), and after that only outside. If you think about it, they've spent 9 months at an almost perfectly constant 37C – even a fairly hot room is quite an adjustment for them at first.

Congratulations! Mine were born in April and July in the UK and neither ever wore a hat and nor did the hospital mention anything about a hat.

By design, the mother regulates the baby's body temperature by holding them on their chest.

If you home birth no one puts a hat on your baby.

It's just a hospital policy.

If your mother's instinct is that they don't need it, then take it off. You will need to trust that instinct, over and over again.

They always have hats as they get cold really quickly.

Congratulations!

Congrats! It's standard for them to wear hats for the first few days. Think we stopped putting them on indoors once we were home. Don't stress too much, and enjoy the bubble!

Both mine had hats put on them as soon as they were born, literally in the operating theater, before anything else (they had a massive stack of tiny knitted ones). They said to keep them on for the first day, then only use outside in cold weather.

Do you not know your West Wing?!

Toby Ziegler talking to his newborn twins: "I didn't realize babies come with hats. You guys crack me up. You don't have jobs. You can't walk or speak the language. You don't have a dollar in your pockets but you got yourselves a hat so everything's fine".

https://images.app.goo.gl/evKY189sjAJ7ftxm9

My hospital was obsessed with hats. we were readmitted over a week after birth for my health reasons and they still told me off for not having a hat on

Actually, I've had 2 homebirths in the past 3 years and both times the midwife stuck a hat on the baby (which I promptly took off the minute they walked out of the door). But yes, I agree you should trust your instincts above anything else, especially when it comes to weird midwifery headwear obsessions

My baby was born just after 1am and we did get 'told off' for not keeping her hat on during the first few hours in the delivery room, it kept falling off her, even when lied down it was more like perched on top of her head..we were moved to post natal around 9am and was told she doesn't need to a hat there. This was in winter but the hospital was warm

My baby was born last April, midwife put a hat on him for the same reason as yours has said so wouldn't worry but at the same time trust your instincts :)

Congratulations and I'd just take the hat off. Trust your instincts, they seem bang on

Congratulations!

They need hats for the first couple of days as they are not very good at maintaining their body temperature when newborn. You can also hold them skin to skin as much as possible to help them develop this.

After you've gone home the advice you've been given at the class applies. Nobody explained this to me either, and I kept unwrapping my baby in hospital, especially the second one who had much bigger problems maintaining body heat, the alarms would go off and they would run in and it was only after about 36 hours anybody actually explained this to me

Me too (2x homebirths)! Did they bring a hat with them then?

Both babies born in hot weather, one in US, one in UK. Don't remember either wearing hats....

Hi everyone,

I've been away from my computer the whole day with baby and family stuff, and coming back to all your replies was amazing.

Thanks to everyone who responded - all of your replies were helpful, and I think there will be no more hats at night. Trusting my instincts is very hard as I have a tendency to defer to medical professionals, so I am still learning how to assert myself and advocate for my baby. These last couple of days have been a huge learning curve and it's terrifying but amazing.

Thanks again,

CJ