Denise: I have to say that my take on this is that bathing IS most certainly bf related and that is why the list-moms have stayed quiet. If one looks at Klaus and Klaus's research on the washing of the amniotic fluid off the hands impairing bf, how can one not see this as a bf issue? When baths take place away from the mother, the issue is further confounded by the separation of m-b dyad (yes this does still happen). Last, we've spoken about how bathing reduces babies' instincts but I hypothesize that the bathing decreases the mother's olfactory response to baby and perhaps impairs bonding. No, I haven't a single published article to prove this last point, but I'd love to hear of one. 'Just my 2 cents. Happy Spring! Chris Hafner-Eaton, PhD, MPH, CHES, IBCLC [log in to unmask] mom, wife, educator, lactation consultant, researcher, scientist, author, organic gardener, photographer, lapidary creator, lousy cleaner. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html