Burping is a concern here, out of all proportion to the gravity of the
'problem'.  I think I may have had ten conversations with new parents in the
decades I've been working with them where neither mother nor father asked
about burping.  It is the hardest-dying holdover from bottle feeding I know
of.  The typical question is 'He never burps by himself, how long do we have
to carry him upright after a feed before it is safe to lay him down?'  
Sigh.

About newborn bathing: I agree there is no need to cleanse the baby or
perfume it in any way, and separation from mother for bathing in the first
day is not justified. Newborn babies smell sweet, as does normal amniotic
fluid, and the scent is identifiably unique to each mother and baby and
plays a role in attachment/breastfeeding.  But if there is vernix and any
trace of blood in the folds at a baby's groin, neck, or axillae, it starts
to smell, well, intensely FUNKY after a couple of days (this, from someone
who doesn't use any skin care, laundry or household cleaning products with
added fragrance - I am quite comfortable with what people smell like).   It
isn't always dealt with in the cursory wiping off we do after birth, and we
try not to remove vernix. Simply dipping the baby in water with some plain
old salt added will dissolve dried blood and it can be wiped off, leaving
the vernix on the skin. Incidentaly, in parts of N. Africa it is considered
imperative to bathe all newborns in salt water so they won't sweat profusely
when they grow up.  A lot of babies love floating in water too.  It's not
necessary to use commercial skin care products in bathing and it is one of
life's great pleasures for many of us.  

We've come a long way since Frederic LeBoyer launched the newborn immersion
bath to ease the trauma of birth.  I far prefer the present variant of
immersing the laboring woman in water. Both mother and baby emerge from the
water with no need for more bathing, the blood is gone and they have marked
the bath water with their own scent, which they keep with them.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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