Hypothermia and the newborn's bath in the first hours of life.

Objective: to analyze the occurrence of hypothermia in neonates before and after bathing in the first hours of life.

Method: a cross-sectional study in which the axillary temperature of newborns before bathing, after bathing, 30 and 60 minutes after bathing was verified at an Obstetric Center. In the statistical analysis, the Chi-Square, Student's t and Mann-Whitney tests were used, with α = 0.05.

Results: A total of 149 newborns were included in the study, showing the prevalence of neonatal hypothermia in 40.3% of the cases, with a statistically significant association (p <0.001) between the occurrence of neonatal hypothermia at all axillary temperature assessments. A statistically significant correlation was found between the variables: room temperature and temperature verification 60 minutes after bath (p = 0.032).

Conclusions: It is concluded that the first bath can be postponed to favor the adaptation of the neonate to the extrauterine environment, preventing the occurrence of neonatal hypothermia.