homebirthers- who bathes your baby??

[MuslimMama]

I know it sounds like such a stupid question, but DS was born in the hospital, where a nurse took him, bathed him, and gave him back to me all cleaned up. I am planning a home birth now, so I am just wondering... who bathes the baby??

[mommyfied]

It's your home, your baby so you can decide.

I nursed DD for an hour or two. My mw got the tub ready with some herbs and then baby and I got in together. After our bath she had her newborn exam.

[KaylaBeanie]

When the time comes, I plan to just rub baby off with a towel to get the blood and junk off, then take an herb bath after nursing, eating and taking a nap. I've heard that leaving the vernix on for awhile and massaging it into the skin is good for baby.

[stormborn]

Dh bathed the baby while the birth attendant helped me clean up.

[CallMeMommy]

We jumped in the tub together a few hours after birth so I could get the meconium off of me (he pooped all over me!) and try to get some of the blood out of his hair, but an actual soap-and-water scrubbing? Didn't happen until he was about 2 weeks old.

ETA: And we didn't actually *scrub* him, just FYI

[micah_mae_]

Corbin was a water birth but at a birth center. He didn't have a first "bath" until he was 11 days old. DH and I did it.

[mbhf]

My second (first homebirth) was sponged off by my MW. My third and fourth were not bathed until they were a couple of weeks old. It's up to you.

[JamieCatheryn]

Unless they poop on the way out or there is tearing, newborns aren't all that messy and can wait until you're settled in and rested to get a bath. DS2's first bath (our homebirth) baby and I both got in the tub and I washed him the next morning after he was born at midnight.

[Baby_Cakes]

I don't think we bathed DD for a few days. She didn't need it. We just rubbed the vernix in and wiped her face down with a damp cloth. She smelled lovely and was so beautiful, we didn't feel like we had to.

[laohaire]

I bathed her the next day. I know now I didn't need to, but that's what I did. It's certainly not an emergency in any case. When she was born, we wrapped her in a towel to keep her warm, and that was all (we certainly did not RUB the towel on her, though).

[ShwarmaQueen]

It was the next day or so for DS. The crusty hair thing bugged me.

[DisplacedYooper]

My DS was a water birth, and didn't really have a bath per se after he was born...he just got dried off. He got a couple spit baths over the next weeks, but the next time he was immersed in water was at one month.

[Sharlla]

we had a water birth so she was dried off by my friend. we dont have a ath tub so we started doing showers in the water sling when she was 4 days old (when the cord fell off)
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[Annoia]

DD was born at home - no bath immediately after birth. She wasn't bathed until days later.

Really, she wasn't all funky or anything. Vernix, ya, but that just seemed to absorb in. She was wrapped in a blankie right after birth, so that might have rubbed some junk off.

And, I might add, her skin looked WONDERFUL compared to DS, who was born in hospital and totally scrubbed down.

[*MamaJen*]

DS was a water birth, so he didn't really need a bath. I took the best bath ever about an hour after the birth. The midwife asked if I wanted to take him in with me, and I was like, hell no. I just gave birth and I am going to stretch out in a hot herbal bath and relax for 15 minutes.

[neverdoingitagain]

I didn't have a homebirth, hospital birth here with mine. BUT I bathed dd2 once we got home. I didn't allow the nurses to take her at all, and got to do the bath myself. It was lovely You don't need to give the baby a bath right away, especially if you have a homebirth. The only reason the nurses could give to bath her was due appearance(so what?) and the bodily fluids issue(they had to wear gloves while handling her during our stay.) Since you're going to be at home, neither are an issue.
Good luck! I hope you have a wonderful home birth

[Tizzy]

Even with DS1 being a C/S baby, I refused to bath him in the hossy as long as I could. But their "policy" is that us first-time parents had to demonstrate that we knew how to bath a baby. It was ridiculous, but he got bathed nonetheless. You should have heard all the comments my night nurse had about leaving it "so long" - a total of what, 36hrs

DS2 didn't have his first bath until he was 3 or 4 days old? And it was in the tub with DH. Awesome awesome photos!

And now DD didn't have her first bath until she was...11 days old. Just never got around to it until then, and she was perfectly fine!

[Phoebe]

At my house, me. Baby doesn't get anything other than a wipe off after birth and only a wet wash cloth wipe down for weeks.

[cristeen]

Our little guy didn't get a bath until he was a week old on MW's orders. NBs don't have the ability to regulate their body temp at first and she didn't want him getting sick.

And he passed meconium on the way out. We just wiped him down and it wasn't a big deal.

[thebeljur]

Hmm...I'm trying to remember the baths with my home births. We didn't do any official bath at birth; the babes were just wiped down and wrapped up. I think we bathed them after a week or so (maybe longer...I honestly don't remember!).

It's your home and your birth -- you do what you want.