When I teach childbirth classes and we do the tour of L&D and post partum, I explain that the baby is given a bath in post partum, 2-3 hours after birth. I also explain that the baby has been living in a sterile environment for 9 months and there is really no reason to give a bath immediately. (They haven't seen dirty till they have a two year old.) This is in the context of letting class participants know throughout the 6 week course that the baby is THEIRS and they have choices about any of the procedures carried out on the baby before and after birth. Refusing some procedures will engender more resistance from hospital staff than others, and many procedures are done by default unless the parents explicitly refuse the procedure, but ultimately, the choice and responsibility belong to the parents. Naomi Bar-Yam *********************************************** 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