Cricket: here in OZ midwives and OBs dont even have to wear gloves during labour and birth. there is no way that i would allow my midwives to wear gloves when handling my baby. i would think too, that the staff would know what you 'have' or dont have?? with routine BTs and all that jazz.

Interesting. What do they do on other floors? When I was in nursing school, we were drilled on "standard precautions" which meant you wore gloves any time you could be in contact with bodily fluids or open wounds. It was for your own protection and the patient's. And knowing how often hand washing gets forgotten or missed in the rush of a busy day, I think I'd almost rather have my nurse put on clean gloves before she touched my baby at the hospital.

Just another reason I'm glad to have my babies at home. Hospitals are gross and dirty.

My homebirth babies first baths have been the post partum herbal bath with me. The herbs they use are supposed to be good for healing the umbilical stump too.