Dear Friends:
     I am wondering about the purpose of bathing in the first place. Why wash
a newborn? Unless they are covered with blood or poop, they are actually
pretty clean. Does it have to do with a culturally insidious, inherent
distrust/suspicion about the cleanliness of the vagina?
     I wonder if our fanatical attachment to cleaniness is harmful in more
ways than one. It contributes to allergies. It disorients babies after birth
on their way to the breast. It robs new mothers of yet another sensual
experience. Why should humans be different to any other mammals who identify
their babies by smell. How many mothers do we know, including ourselves, that
revel in the wonderful smell of our baby's head as we kiss it a million times
before the first month is over?
     Some scientific people don't consider the olfactory nerve as one of the
cranial nerves; rather, they consider it to be an outgrowth of the brain
because it is such a large and powerful sensory pathway. Why should humans be
any different to other mammals that identify their young by smell?
     Vernix is meant to be absorbed into the skin, and is protective. How
practical or logical is it to wash vernix off and then keep babies under the
warmer because they are cold?
     Some have postulated that babies must be colonised with flora at birth
to protect the baby from "foreign" germs. Baby must learn to live with the
germs at home. Dr. Peter Hartmann ( long may he live!) has even suggested
that new mothers should be licking their babies and not washing their hands
after diaper changes in order to facilitate this process of bacterial
colonisation. How much damage is done at a microbiological level by so many
strangers outside the family handling the baby at birth?
     So many questions.....I recognize that the evolutionary aspects of birth
have been successful and many of the problems with breastfeeding that we all
deal with today are the result of tampering, arrogance, and lack of respect
for what has worked for millenia.
     Warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI, CCE
craniosacral therapy practitioner
Elkins Park (a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; northeastern USA)
supporting the WHO Code and the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative

             ***********************************************
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