Mom Says She Didn't Wash Her Newborn For 'At Least' A Month Because It's Healthier & She Doesn't Care If It's Gross
Her baby won't have his first bath for a few months.
TikTok Having a baby is a uniquely personal experience. Some parents choose to give birth in a hospital, while others opt for having a home birth.
A hospital birth comes with certain set routines done immediately after the baby is born, such as giving the baby their first bath. A home birth allows for some more flexibility regarding how your baby spends its first moments on earth.
While it’s been common practice in hospitals to give a baby their first bath in the first few hours after birth, the World Health Organization now recommends waiting a minimum of six hours after birth to bathe a baby, with a full 24-hour wait preferred.
One mom says she didn’t wash her newborn for 'at least a month’ because it’s healthier for the baby.
Shanhta Hoare, a mom of 4, captured her 4th baby’s first after-birth moments on camera, posting them to TikTok.
She shared footage of herself after having a homebirth, holding her newborn baby. The post was captioned, “I wish I could relive this moment over and over again.”
Followers may have noticed that her baby had a layer of a white, waxy substance covering his skin. This is called vernix caseosa, which in Latin means “varnish of a cheesy nature.” Vernix is defined as “a naturally occurring biofilm covering the skin of the fetus during the last trimester of pregnancy.”
It’s composed of peptides, enzymes, and lipids with antimicrobial properties, which work to protect the baby’s skin from pathogens, while also acting as antioxidants and anti-inflammatories.
Vernix plays an important role for a baby both in the womb and out of it, as Hoare shared in a follow-up video.
Hoare went back to TikTok to answer the question, “how and what did you use to clean him?”
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The answer to the question of what Hoare used to clean her baby was: nothing at all.
Speaking of her birthing experience with her first three children, Hoare said, “Jackson had his first bath in the hospital. I didn’t advocate for myself and unfortunately Jackson and the twins got wiped off.”
“But Ozzy did not get wiped of anything. What you see in that video stayed on him until it just naturally came off him,” she explained.
“Vernix is actually really good to keep on their skin,” Hoare continued. “It’s super, super moisturizing; it’s almost a little oily… It’s the best.”
Hoare explained that her newborn son had vernix “in his neck creases, he had it in his ears, fingers, toes. I know it’s maybe gross to some but when it’s your own baby you’re like, Oh, this stuff is so good.”
Hoare claimed that she didn’t give her baby a bath and she didn’t care if people thought that was gross.
“He didn’t get wiped and he won’t get his first bath for many more weeks,” Hoare stated.
While Hoare’s decision to not bathe her baby might seem odd to some, there are definite health benefits to letting vernix absorb in a baby’s skin.
Vernix creates a barrier for a baby’s skin in the womb, stopping its skin from pulling in water from amniotic fluid. It also protects their skin from infection and even helps reduce friction during the birthing process, as the baby moves through the birth canal.
Vernix stops bacteria from passing through a baby’s skin, giving them time for their immune system to grow stronger. It even helps them stabilize their body temperature, which is incredibly important to their health.
There’s no maximum recommendation for the amount of time vernix should stay on a baby’s skin, although full benefits are reached between 24 and 48 hours after birth.
Vernix absorbs into a baby’s skin in the same way a moisturizer would. Parents can encourage this absorption by gently massaging the vernix into their skin after the 24-hour mark.
Hoare’s choice to leave the vernix on her newborn is emblematic of the fact that different approaches work for different parents, and no one should judge people’s parenting choices from the outside.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.