Yes, that’s right. Rub off all of that “dirt” with a nice rough towel. UGH! She’s been floating in it for 9 months, what’s a few more minutes?! Whatever was left on my son after his birth was rubbed into his skin…he didn’t have his first bath for 3 weeks! And he didn’t even stink, lol.

I long to get to hold one right away. My babies always have green mec. They wisk them away and suck out their lungs. I recall with my first, they put him on a warmer, clean and naked, and being dumb at the time I just looked at him. I should have demanded they give him to me. I did get to hold my 2nd for a brief moment, but then they took her because she had mec up her back. I had one taken to the NICU right away due to the mec issue, and only touched her until she came back to me six hours later. This time, I’m hoping (with a midwife) to get to hold this baby right after. I also want to be the one to bathe this one. I mean, after six babies, you’d think I earned the right to hold one straight from the womb.

I didn’t wash my home-birthed babies for weeks. Why should I? The vernix is the best thing to protect their skin – that’s why they’re born with it!!!
Someone asked me how long my midwife let me hold my baby after the birth.
I told her, “About two weeks.”
There’s nothing like that earthy-birth smell…

What I find so offensive about this is a provider presuming to know what a woman wants, especially right after she just gave birth to that baby! Don’t tell me what I want or what I feel–ever!

Claire, Amen!
This was my submission, and it had never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be able to hold my baby right after the birth (assuming everything was ok, which it was). I was so tired, and dumbfounded by his response that I didn’t even argue, plus no one was listening to me anyway. Of all the negative aspects of my hospital birth, this is the one that I can’t get over. The first time I got to hold my daughter she was wrapped up from head to toe.