Newborn baths are essentially standard operating procedure in a hospital delivery. Yet, there’s many significant reasons to postpone that newborn bath. It might seem gross to many Americans. You may be thinking about the white coating, called vernix, and how that should be cleaned off.
Vernix does more than act as a protective barrier from liquids while in the uterus. It acts as an antioxidant, skin cleanser, moisturizer, temperature regulator, and a natural, safe antimicrobial for the new baby post delivery. Click through the links to find research that points to the tremendous benefits of postponing the newborn infant’s first bath.
- First line of defense in early human life. “…these innate effectors may work synergistically to provide a first line of defense against infection, as well as to promote interactions between the innate and adaptive immunity in newborn infants.”
- Vernix caseosa as a multi-component defence system… “Antimicrobial activity of crude protein/peptide extracts of vernix against B. megaterium, E. coli, GBS, and C. albicans.”
- A novel role for vernix caseosa as a skin cleanser. “Image analysis showed that exogenous application of vernix exhibited a cleansing capability comparable or superior to standard skin cleansers.”
- Barrier Formation and Wound Healing. “, vernix caseosa is involved in maintaining the water balance in the skin of a newborn and in that way, helps to maintain skin temperature as well as the right water activity in the skin for optimal skin barrier formation. This suggests that vernix caseosa could also have a skin repairing effect when applied to damaged skin (i.e., wounds, scars) as well as dry skin.”
- Effect of vernix caseosa on the penetration of chymotryptic enzyme: potential role in epidermal barrier development.
- Immediate newborn care practices delay thermoregulation and breastfeeding initiation. ” Bathing not only exposes newborns to hypothermia, but also removes maternal bacteria and the vernix caseosa (a potent inhibitor of Escherichia coli)”
Essentially, a newborn is bathed in a hospital, which is the home of the strongest and most drug-resistant microorganisms. This bath washes the natural protective coating from the newborn’s skin. This protective barrier is rich with natural flora, emollients, proteins, and antimicrobials… but we wash it off. In washing it off, we leave the newborn’s skin open to colonization from the hospital’s microorganisms. We allow the skin to dry out, and we in turn, apply manufactured, less adequate moisturizers to compensate. We also, no matter how well we attempt to dry a wet baby off, leave the skin damp at a time when temperature regulation is vital. To compensate, we bundle and cap the baby. This compensation eliminates important skin-to-skin contact that is important in proper flora building and crucial olfactory (scent) bonding.
As if these medical reasons weren’t enough of a case for delaying that first bath, an article in the Lancet suggested that interrupting the initial bonding process with a wash down can cause significant damage to successful breastfeeding. When a baby is placed on a mother directly, after about a twenty minute acclimation period, the infants in their study began to make crawling movements towards the breast. This was followed promptly by the rooting reflex. Before long, most of these infants were breastfeeding. Remarkably (or not so remarkably, perhaps) more infants in the group that were allowed this bonding period demonstrated correct “suckling technique” than infants in the group that was separated from their mothers. (24 out of 38 in the contact group, as opposed to only seven out of 34 in the separation group.)
Tell me, is vernix really SO gross looking, that we are willing to wash away something so amazing and interrupt such a crucial period of bonding?