>
>New babies are little open books - why should they not "bond" with 
>mom's normal soaps/deos/perfumes rather than with sweat?  And are we 
>really sure that smell alone has that much influence on a baby's 
>ability to latch and breastfeed? It's positioning and latching 
>skills (which we can teach...) which allow breastfeeding to take 
>place. Other animals have large olfactory centres in their brains, 
>but our sense of smell is not one of our main survival skills...IME, 
>having a non-bathed, unwashed mother is just not that important to 
>breastfeeding success, whereas it's probably very important to her 
>morale!


Agree, Pamela.

Hey, here's a great idea....why not *ask* the mother if she would 
like a wash/shower and help her if she needs help?  Gently offer a 
bit of assistance getting into fresh nightwear, and be flexible and 
responsive to what she wants.

Babies are responsive to smell (remember those experiments with the 
milky breastpads wafted under newborn noses?) and it's not too much 
of a stretch to think that a full-on douse with a powerful perfume 
might not be a great idea, but the idea of an HCP telling a mother 
no, she can't shower or bathe for some (arbitrary) time is a worse 
one :)

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK


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