Hi,
><<In the hospitals where I have worked in L&D and postpartum the babies
>generally got cold as a result of their initial bath.   If babies are
>kept skin to skin, not bathed and sport one of those cute little hats
>there shouldn't be a cold issue.  The good news is things are changing
>at some of the area hospitals and babies are being transferred with mum
>from L&D to her postpartum room and skipping the nursery visit
>entirely.  Which is good news for breastfeeding.>>
>
>We have 2 problems with above approach (which has been suggested). 1. The
>nurses object because they think they will have a lot more work to do if
>they have to clean up the baby etc etc in the room. 2. Nurses keep saying
>they don't want to touch unbathed babies and what about 'universal health
>precautions' bodily fluids etc. Anyone else overcome these barriers?

Most British hospitals do not routinely bath newborns or have well baby
nurseries, yet I have never seen that to be a problem. Babies are
initially wrapped in a towel at birth and any meconium or blood etc.
wiped off with a damp cloth (a "lick and a promise" as the nurses tend
to call it). Babies are kept in bassinets by the mother's bed. Nurses
rarely touch babies since the mothers do all the baby care if at all
possible - if a baby is terribly stinky, the nurse could always wear
gloves if assisting the mother (for instance, a c-section mother who
needs a diaper changed). IMHO, nurses should be doing the bare minimum
to look after the healthy baby of a basically healthy mother - maybe
your nurses are a bit over-protective? Babies don't actually come out of
the womb dirty (even meconium is not really "dirt") but neither are they
sterile - if a nurse is worried about "body fluids", what's she doing
working with babies? :-^ (I have it on good authority that babies and
body fluids are intimately related, and that babies tend to leak at both
ends).
--
Anna (Mummy to Emma, born 17th Jan 1995, Alice, born 11th Sept 1996,
??? due 18th April 1998)
Email: [log in to unmask]  Web Page: http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna