When my son was born , they took him to the nursery at an hour after birth (routine vaginal delivery, no complications). He was in there for HOURS (at least one) getting his first bath. My husband was allowed to watch as a "special thing"since I was a resident at the hospital and that is the only reason i have pictures of his bath. Then they kicked my husband out while he was forced to lay in a warmer for a certain amount of time and sat up in the window where whoever walked by could see him (yet his own mother was stuck in the hospital room alone without him).  Talk about "routine separation" . By the time I got him back, I had several visitors, my in-laws brought me dinner, ect,ect. He was wrapped up in 2 blankets and a hat, and I'm sure none of us are surprised he didn't nurse much that night and he certainly lost 10% of weight by hospital discharge! 

With my daughter who arrived this May 17th, I had a MUCH improved experience. Following another vaginal delivery, this time I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of a timeline. We were able to rest alone with daddy for an hour or two, and then transferred to my postpartum room, holding my baby the whole time. The only time we were separated in the delivery room was literally a minute while they weighed her and they asked me if they could weigh her before touching her. A few hours later, my nurse bathed her in the room, then gave her back immediately to warm up on my chest skin-to-skin. It was wonderful.  My daughter breastfed well the entire hospital stay- we were never apart. It was a huge difference . 

Thank goodness the teaching hospital here is working on BFHI- wish the others would get a clue!

I'm just one mom in the world , but I'm also a pediatrician, and routine separation of moms and babies in those first few hours DOES matter. Honestly, it doesn't matter to me one bit if I am examining a baby in the hospital who hasn't had a bath- I do wear gloves. 

IMO, nobody needs to be kissing a newborn besides mom and dad anyway, from a infection control standpoint!!! (and i'm not talking about baby transmitting anything to a visitor :) 

Mary Martin, MD, CLC
(right outside of Greenville, SC)

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