When a baby is first born research shows that the more time it is away from direct skin to skin contact with its mother the harder it will be to initiate breastfeeding. All those folks in the delivery area who want to hold the baby – back off. It’s time for some imprinting to take place and it needs to be on MOM, that sweaty lady with the milky boobs … Oh yes, and mom shouldn’t rush to shower, baby uses olfactory signals to home in on the nipple. Baby also shouldn’t be rushed to a bath, that cheesy stuff (vernix) protects his skin and he needs time to adjust and stabilize his temperature before his first bath. In fact, that first bath doesn’t really need to happen any time soon, day 2 of life is fine. The baby can be dried on mom’s chest and the messiest parts wiped off without disrupting the process and this bonding thing is a process. Would you snatch a newborn kitten from his mom to pass him around the room? I don’t think so, at least not if you have any common sense.
Pass the “peace pipe” later, after that first feeding but allow that new mom the time to hold her baby undisturbed at least until he has had his first meal!
Off the soapbox and back down to normal altitudes….I only wish hospitals in the US actually practised this way.