Hot Topic: Delayed Bathing

• Transcript

  Kaely Harrod 00:04

  Welcome to doula Tips and Tits. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaely Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born 12 nearly 13 years ago. I am a birth and postpartum doula childbirth educator, La Leche League Leader, and a doula coach. I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doula business, it is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way. Thank you for joining us on this journey. This is our second point of view episode and it is all about delayed bathing. So in my childbirth classes, or in my prenatal visits, when I have someone asked me about the benefits of delayed bathing, this is kind of the spiel that I give them. Right, this is how I explain it. So there is research to say that delaying the first bath for a minimum of 24 hours increases the success rate of latching and breastfeeding. Part of the reason behind that is that the babies vernix that's on their skin at birth smells very similar to the oil that's excreted by the areola, when lactation is happening, and so that is thought to kind of guide the baby a bit to the space where they're supposed to be. And also just make it easier for them to do that. The other thing to consider is that that vernix that's on their skin is actually incredibly beneficial to their skin. And so many people at this point, recommend rubbing it into their skin and kind of giving it time to absorb what I sort of think about when I think about that is like imagine that you put on like a really thick sunscreen and you just got it barely rubbed in and then you took a shower, it wouldn't really have an effect on your skin in a positive way, because it would probably mostly wash off, right? So that's also one of the benefits of that 24 hour minimum. Now some people decide to wait longer than that. There's less research to say like exactly how long, you know, if you need to wait three days, four days, what does that look like. But there's also not a huge need for washing your baby when they really aren't doing anything except pooping and hanging out with you. Now, if you had a vaginal delivery, and your kiddo is covered in fluids from that vaginal delivery, it might be worth like washing out dried blood from their hair and things like that. But that's really a personal decision in my mind. And less of like a health concern for the kiddo to kind of caveats that are important to note. One is if someone's giving birth at a hospital, oftentimes, they do want to bathe the baby before you go home. But it's not required. So if someone is really wanting to wait more than that 24 or 48 hours, they need to make sure that the hospital knows that they do not want a bath while they're there. Another bit is if someone is choosing a circumcision, then a baby has to be at least bathed from the waist down before a circumcision is happening. So similar to what we talked about with the cord clamping that if there's cord blood banking, and also delayed cord clamping, they can't really go together in the way that we sometimes think. And so that's true here that if you want to delay the bath until you get home, but you also plan to circumcise your baby at the hospital, you can't do both of those things at the same time. There is really no need to give bed baths super frequently in the newborn time, it's actually recommended to not bathe more than like once a week or so unless they're like spitting up all over themselves, or they pooped into their hair or something like that. And if you think that's wild, my kids have definitely pooped into their hair and they had a lot of hair and so then it required a bath. But really otherwise they're not getting that dirty and you're washing their diaper area a lot. The other places that tend to get kind of musty and dirty or any sort of rolls that a baby has to like under the chins or under the armpits or if they have like thigh rolls and those can get kind of gross. So it's important to just use a wipe and wipe those out. So that's kind of a good interim thing between baths if someone is wanting to delay their bath or if they're wanting to just kind of do like a wipe down in between full baths. All right, I'll see you in the next episode.

  Kaely Harrod 04:46

  Thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula Tips and Tips podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at Herat doula. So we can celebrate alongside you. If you found on this podcast helpful, we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast app that helps other doulas find us as we do this work together. This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment it is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business. We'll see you again soon.

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Did you know that delaying the first bath for at least 24 hours after birth can help regulate the baby's body temperature, blood sugar, and even reduce the risk of infection? It also allows for the baby to bond with their parent(s) through skin-to-skin contact, which can promote lactation and overall healthy attachment. This is our new hot topic for our mini series

Quote from the show:

“There is research to say that delaying the first bath for a minimum of 24 hours increases the success rate of latching and breastfeeding. Part of the reason behind that is that the babies vernix that's on their skin at birth smells very similar to the oil that's excreted by the areola, when lactation is happening so that is thought to kind of guide the baby a bit to the space where they're supposed to be. And also just make it easier for them to do that. The other thing to consider is that that vernix that's on their skin is actually incredibly beneficial to their skin. And so many people at this point, recommend rubbing it into their skin and kind of giving it time to absorb what I sort of think about when I think about that is like imagine that you put on like a really thick sunscreen and you just got it barely rubbed in and then you took a shower, it wouldn't really have an effect on your skin in a positive way, because it would probably mostly wash off, right?”

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Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services

It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class

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