Legal and ethical issues apart, isn't just polite, kind and humane  to ask
first,  if you need to touch anybody (or anybody's baby)  for anything?

In NCT bf counselling, we don't have any firm rules about this, but I
personally never touch a mother, or her baby. I might, if she seems to be
having positional difficulties, shadow her hands with mine. I grab a doll
or a teddy or a cushion or something to show her what I mean if I need to
demonstrate holding or positioning. I advise my trainees *not* to touch. If
a mother *asks* you to hold the baby while she does something else, then
that's okay, of course.

But we are *not* hps, and I think this makes a difference. Not that being a
midwife gives anyone licence to pull, shove and ram the way I know can
happen sometimes : (

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK