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Imagine how wrinkled your skin would be if you sat in the bath for 40 weeks!! Yet, throughout your pregnancy, your baby is suspended and floating in a little balloon of fluid.
Clever old Mother Nature has a solution for this however!
Have you ever seen the cross channel swimmers who cover their bodies in goose fat? Well, the greasy white stuff that newborns are often covered with, vernix, is a waterproofing, moisturising, antibacterial and anti microbial lard!
It’s produced by your baby’s sebaceous glands in the 3rd trimester and is also linked to the substance produced in the lungs, surfactant, in readiness for them to inflate with its first breath at birth.
Vernix is also believed to have incredible wound healing properties and studies are ongoing to explore its use in burns victims.
So, don’t be in too much of a rush to bathe your newborn, just let the vernix do it’s amazing work.
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