> I can't believe the major event that these sponge baths are for
>parents--the nurses teach them how to do it in the baby care classes, we
>have a video on giving baby a sponge bath--why not just dry off the cord
>after the bath?  What do you all tell parents and is there any basis for
>that sponge bath thing?

Becky,
I'm so glad to see that someone is challenging this. I teach infant care
classes, and ever since attending the ILCA conference three years ago and
hearing about rebirthing, I've been questioning our current cord-care
protocol. I have two hours to cover normal newborn appearance along with
everything that concerns parents, and I'm just so pressed for time.  I
didn't use to cover bathing (gave a handout), but soon discovered that
that was parent's number one concern!  Much ado about nothing.

Ever since reading the posts a week or two ago about hospitals starting
to go with air-drying only, I'm eager to introduce this to my community.
I certainly can't teach something that contradicts hospital protocol, but
if I could take appropriate references to the hospital, I might be able
to get this tiresome practice changed. Anyone have references?  What
convinced these hospitals to change?

-Lisa Marasco, BA, IBCLC