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To determine whether delaying the newborn bath by 24 hours increases the prevalence of breastfeeding initiation and exclusive breastfeeding at discharge in healthy full-term and late preterm newborns (34 0/7–36 6/7 weeks gestation) and to examine the effect of delayed newborn bathing on the incidences of hypothermia and hypoglycemia.

Pre–post implementation, retrospective, cohort study.

Provincial children’s hospital with an average of 2,500 births per year.

Healthy newborns (N = 1,225) born at 34 0/7 weeks or more gestation who were admitted to the mother–baby unit.

We compared newborns who were bathed before 24 hours (n = 680, preimplementation group) to newborns who were bathed after 24 hours (n = 545, postimplementation group).

After adjustment for confounders, the odds of exclusive breastfeeding at discharge were 33% greater in the …