The first hours

Warmth, a bare chest, and a first feed matter more than a bath or a photograph.

Skin-to-skin steadies temperature, breathing, and feeding cues.
The first milk, colostrum, is small in volume and enough.
A bath can wait. Vernix does not need to be scrubbed off.
Vitamin K and other newborn medicines are standard offers — discuss them, do not skip them in silence.

The golden hour, when it is possible

If both of you are well, the baby can stay on your chest, dried and covered, not washed. This is when many babies root and latch. A cesarean can still include skin-to-skin, sometimes with the other parent first. Separation for a check should be explained and, when possible, brief.

What the body produces

Meconium, the first stool, is black-green and sticky. Urine should come. Colostrum may look like a teaspoon of gold; that teaspoon is the design, not a low supply. If the baby is too sleepy to feed, or breathing hard, that is a staff conversation immediately, not a home remedy.

Ask your midwife or doctor before you change medicine, herbs, or a birth plan.

Sizes and dates are averages. Feeding and sleep notes follow widely published public-health guidance, including World Health Organization infant-feeding advice and back-to-sleep recommendations. They are not a protocol for your hospital.