When do you get to give baby a wash?

[BlueButTrue]

Obviously when they're first out they usually look like they've got white stuff all over them, but whenever I see a parent post an inpatient hospital photo of baby, the baby always looks clean and rosey once dressed.

Does the MW wipe them or are all these people just using head to toe wipe down wipes before taking pictures?

Silently hoping I can clean baby before dressing them

There seems to be a lot of mixed replies!

My DB (only 3 ) was bathed by the MW. My mum says my sisters weren't but that was a different hospital.

I was bathed a few hours after my birth. My mum fancied one and brought me in apparently.

DSIL hasn't bathed her two week old yet and I think he's a bit smelly now and needs one tbh

My DS got. Put straight into a bath whilst I was being stitched.

Mum Seems like there's a lot of difference from hospital to hospital

Not all babies are born covered in vernix. Neither had a bath until they got home. DC2 was only top and tailed for ages.

I didn't bath mine for about a week. The vernix, as pp have said, isn't an issue and babies don't get dirty in the same way we do.

I washed/swabbed with cotton wool and water: their faces, neck creases, hands (they get fluff and bits of dead skin in them a lot), nappy region twice a day. It's quite nice taking the time to do it and gazing lovingly at their perfectly formed little bodies I think it's nicer than a bath as well, you can keep them wrapped up all cosy in a towel and only get the bits you're cleaning wet so they don't get chilly.

I didn't see any baby baths at the hospital at all. TBF though we were discharged straight from the delivery suite within a few hours of birth and didn't make it to the ward so I don't know if they had baths there.

Ds had a bath in hospital on day 2 or 3 I think. His hair was a bit yucky with dried blood but other than that he looked clean.

I vaguely remember the midwife and ex giving DD a bath soon after she was born but maybe that was because there had been meconium in my waters.

Didn't bath my youngest for a good 6 weeks! None of my 4 have been bathed after birth, they are aged 9 down to 18 weeks

I didn't properly bathe dd for absolutely ages, i would just 'top and tail' her with cotton wool and water I also didn't use wipes until she was 4 months old. But she has never had nappy rash or any other rash and she is almost one now. You have to wait until the cord stump has dried and fallen off to give them a bath (or at least this is what I was told by my midwives at two different ends of the country) and I was so careful with dd it took a long while to detach.

When she was first born they passed her to me immediately for skin to skin, she was a bit grubby with the white stuff and blood so after the cord has been cut they took her and rubbed her with a towel, handed her to DP who had some skin to skin before dressing her while I had a bath. I only bath her even now when she is properly grubby and still do a once over with water and a flannel if we aren't going to have a proper bath in the evening.

My friends mum is/was a midwife but stopped 30 years ago when she had her first child. My friend and I were pregnant at the same time and her mum was HORRIFIED (!) that we weren't taught to bath our babies pre-discharge and was just itching to wash them both when we got out. I guess recommendations chamge! (We were both told to delay as long as we could bear)