They tell you, when your new-born is new born, that the baby can smell you and knows your smell. Some of the stauncher midwives tell you that you shouldn't bath after giving birth, and if you absolutely have to, you should not use soap. This unnatural perfume smell will stop the baby from recognising you and might confuse it into thinking you aren't the original source of food. Having a little nursling snuffling at your breast brings all of this home, and while I wasn't prepared to go the whole hog (literally, it might seem, as that is probably what I smelled like at the time) and not have a bath, I certainly didn't want to confuse the baby by using deodorants or soaps.
I am still feeding Little Miss Snoopy (some might raise eyebrows at this - she is almost two, after all) and I wondered when this craving for the "mother smell" ends. I obviously started using all my usual perfumes soon after I got home from the hospital - it is one thing to not confuse or upset the baby, and an entirely other thing not to confuse and upset the husband. A fine line must be walked. But she seemed to settle into my perfume-y aroma just fine, and got used to me being the provider no matter what I smelled like. She still snuggles close, be it early in the morning or late at night, her mind fixed on the wonderful aroma that leads her to where the food is at.
However, the boys have no qualms about letting me know it is not the motherly smell that they need anymore. Sam crawled into my bed early this morning and I held him close to me. "Not too close, Mama," he whined, obviously a victim of my morning breath. "I don't like that smelly smell!" He quickly back-tracked and tried to make me feel less bad, but the damage was done. That mama-smell just ain't as good as it used to be!
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