Sanitizing sheets, recieving blankets, towels etc.?

[dovey]

Did you do it? For my son's birth, the midwife said to put them into the oven in paper bags for an hour at 140 degrees. We did it.

I can't remember what we did with my daughter's birth re: the baking of linens. I think we might have baked them, but I'm not positive.

I've heard since that it's unnecessary, but I did wash everything in hot water before packing it away for the birth. I'm wondering if I should clean the supplies a little more with the oven thing.....

BTW, my house is not particularly sanitary, so I'm thinking that maybe it's silly. There are drifts of dog and cat hair under the furniture, and sand tracked in daily by the kids.

[Ola_]

I've heard about puting the linens into the oven but I thought that was so that they were warm for wrapping up the baby, etc. I don't know about the sanitizing - our house is the same with the pet hair and well, I figure the baby will be coming through my vagina and that's not exactly the most sanitary, right?

[lovebeingamomma]

yeah the oven thing is to keep them warm as far as I know. I wouldn't worry about extra-sanitizing.

[Stitches]

I just made sure everything was freshly washed...I've never heard of anyone baking their sheets.

[fruitfulmomma]

That was an old school recommendation. We did it with our oldest who was born 10+ years ago. I might have done it with my second. I know the last couple I just washed and dried everything and had it stored away.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

Yea, my DC was born 9 years ago and that was the recommendation then.

[ShwarmaQueen]

We didn't bake anything; just packed it away in a bag after washing it.

[L&K'smommie]

My MW said to just dry it on high heat and you're good.

[Overthemoon]

No we didn't sanitize anything. I just washed everything as I normally would. Also I made sure to use non toxic detergent and fabric softeners which is just what I use on all our family laundry anyway.

[WifeofAnt]

I've never even heard of it. I've been just washing everything regularly (dingy used items are getting washed twice). It might be beneficial to wash them extra hot if people have been sick recently but its not like babies are born with absolutely no immune system. Some antibodies are passed from mother to baby before birth and it would make sense that a woman would pass more antibodies to things she lived with and was regularly exposed to.

Now things that are meant to go in their mouth (artificial nippes and toys)... I'd sanitize those.

[emnic77]

Never heard of that. Just washed & dried normally.

[lunarlady]

As a biologist, I can tell you that sanitizing is a waste of time. They won't stay sterile for more than a few seconds, even if you can get them that way to start! Just make sure they are clean and call it good.

[Nicole730]

We did not do that. I washed everything and set it on the guest room bed, at least a month in advance. My midwife said that was fine.

[MaerynPearl]

We washed (twice, as they were new and we wanted the lint off lol) then tossed them in a trunk until the birth. Sheets however, were placed on the bed with the waterproof liners underneath and used nightly until she was born. Washed my usual times during the month that they were on, but just the top one as the bottom one was under a waterproof liner... we used the recommendation of mattress, liner, sheet, liner sheet for easy clean up after she came. I am SO glad we did too as it gave my midwives more time to help me clean myself up before I got back into bed.

[MsBlack]

Originally Posted by lunarlady

As a biologist, I can tell you that sanitizing is a waste of time. They won't stay sterile for more than a few seconds, even if you can get them that way to start! Just make sure they are clean and call it good.

Yes! The whole idea of 'sterile' is a fantasy--at home or in the hospital. Micro-organisms of all kinds live everywhere...in the air, on surfaces...everywhere. This is normal life...teeming with life At home, the advantage is that the germs present are YOUR germs, your family's personal set of organisms that you've all learned to live with....and you will pass to your baby the tools to live with those same germs. No worries!

[beanbean]

I've only had to oven-sanitize the pan that the midwife uses for her tools and eventually, the placenta. Which makes sense.

I've never had to bake the towels/blankets, but I think they would get thrown in the dryer to warm them up if it was cool in the house.

[HeatherB]

I've seen recommendations to dry on high a bit longer than necessary and then seal everything up afterwards. But, as PPs said, there's no way to prevent "contamination" from the real world. If I knew someone was sick, I'd probably be more careful, but I agree that a thorough cleaning and drying should be fine.

My MWs have used a heating pad to warm blankets in the room during the birth. That worked quite nicely and no one had to run to the kitchen - or risk catching the towels on fire.

[Abismommy]

I never did, lol. I just washed and dried them. A month in advance even! My MW had a nice heating pad to keep the blankets and hat warm

[Marissamom]

With a Homebirth, there's no reason to sanitize unless it's something you think may be contaminited by someone outside of your immediate family. The baby is going to come into contact with every germ in your house in the first hour, and you're already giving them the immunity to it. I'm pretty sure they do sanitize at the hospitals, but that's because of multiple unrelated people using the same linens.