Upon birth Until a few years ago, and even now in some hospitals that have not yet been updated, babies they were bathed as soon as they were born, as if it were totally necessary to leave them clean and neat to meet their mother.
In others, somewhat more advanced, they leave the baby with the mother so that they are skin to skin and make their first shot, and then be evaluated, weighed, carved, etc., and bathed, more or less at two hours of birth.
However, according to one study, it is still soon. Then we leave you with the three reasons why you should not bathe the newborn at birth.
Not to take away the vernix caseosa
Do you see the baby in the picture, full of a yellowish substance? Babies are born like this. Some have more and others have less, but they reach the world with the same substance that protected them inside the uterus, the vernix caseosa.
As I say, until a few years ago it was considered to be a rest of the pregnancy and was retiring, but it is being seen that it has very valid and useful functions for the newborn.
On the one hand, and as Lola explained a few months ago, the vernix It helps the baby keep his body temperature better (the loss of temperature is very dangerous for newborns) and is gradually absorbed by the baby's skin, providing hydration and elasticity (and consequently a lower probability of stings, dermatitis, etc.).
In Babies and more Babies are not born dirty: the first bath can waitNot to break the bond with the mother
Each time the mother and the baby are separated later because it has been seen that in this way the mother tends to be closer to the baby (and for many other good reasons). Although it may seem silly, because all mothers love their children madly, when they do not separate from babies they tend to be more affectionate making them more caresses and having more moments of eye contact.
Then towards the month of life those differences are barely observed, but the first days and weeks can be quite hard and the greater the bond, the better she and the baby will wear it.
To increase the chances of breastfeeding
In 2013, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and of Boston Medical Center published a study in which they compared the newborn bath two hours after delivery with the bathroom done twelve hours later.
They saw that babies who had been bathed later had 39% more likely to be fed exclusively breastfeeding and 59% more likely to achieve almost exclusive breastfeeding. Likewise, they saw that the chances of mother and baby starting a feeding with breast milk (instead of a bottle) were 166% higher.
This study shows that it is not only one hour that must be respected at birth, but many more hours, at least as far as the bathroom is concerned. It is possible that seeing him still "dirty", as if still part of the mother's body, increases the feeling of responsibility in the woman and decides to start breastfeeding and even fight more in case there is any problem with breastfeeding (but it's only a theory).
In any case, in the study they talk about 12 hours, which It is little compared to what they do in many London hospitals, of those in which the evidence is created that is then extended to the rest of the world. There they are recommending that the baby's first bath (what we know as dipping it in the water and rubbing a little with a sponge) be done when you have two or three weeks, to take advantage of the natural fat of the baby's skin. Meanwhile they are only washed with a sponge or wet towel, by areas.
So if in a few years they tell us not to bathe them until they have 15 or 20 days, don't be surprised ... it will be a sign that they have seen that it is better.
