The Effect of Bather and Location of First Bath on Maintaining Thermal Stability in Newborns

Objective: To compare thermal stability during the first bath of newborns bathed by maternal-child nurses in a newborn nursery with thermal stability of newborns bathed by parents at the maternal bedside.

Design: A randomized clinical controlled trial.

Setting: A tertiary care hospital in western Canada.

Participants: Participants (N = 111) were full-term newborns born vaginally.

Interventions: The experimental treatment was the parent bathing the newborn under nursing supervision at the bedside in the first few hours of birth; the standard treatment was a nurse bathing the newborn in an admission nursery.

Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measure was newborn heat loss occurring from bathing as assessed by changes in aural temperatures, which were taken before, during, and following bathing.

Results: There was no difference in temperature change between newborns bathed by a nurse and those bathed by a parent (F = 0.595, df = 1, p = .442). A return to normal thermal ranges takes approximately an hour.

Conclusion: Heat loss experienced by newborns during bathing is significant and is not associated with who bathes the newborn or where the bath takes place.