It's my baby

For starters how DO mom's know - that's my baby.  We are mammals after all and how do they distinguish between their's or someone else baby.  Smell.  Yes, as the mammals with the biggest brain we also can reason that we saw this baby born and he looks just like dad so he must be mine.  But research has shown that not only does scent let us know our baby but it can also arouse certain pleasurable feelings with in us.

How many times have you heard a mom say -  "I could just eat you up" or "I just can't get enough of that baby smell".  We hold them close to our faces, we caress them with our lips, and we inhale that wonder aroma that only a baby can have.

A baby’s scent works the same as drugs and food on a mother’s brain 
                  (from  A World in our Backyard by Laura Sesana)

“The olfactory—thus non-verbal and non-visual—chemical signals for communication between mother and child are intense,” explained Frasnelli, in a university publication. “What we have shown for the first time is that the odor of newborns, which is part of these signals, activates the neurological reward circuit in mothers. These circuits may especially be activated when you eat while being very hungry, but also in a craving addict receiving his drug. It is in fact the sating of desire.” 

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/world-our-backyard/2013/sep/30/babys-scent-works-same-drugs-and-food-mothers-brai/#ixzz2hYmn3zhO
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That is why after birth mothers long to hold their infant and being deprived of that (for what ever reason) creates a void within us.  And this is also why women are so easily attracted to young infants.  It is amazing where I work how the women come out of their offices when a baby is around.  We would love to hold every one of them and i usually get the privilege when mom's are tending to their other children.  In fact I always make sure to say thank you for letting me hold their baby. (I work in a public health clinic so baby's are a common presence.  We love it)

AND - That is why it is so important for mom and baby to be united skin to skin immediately after birth and even foregoing that first "bath" the nurses can wait to give.  Mom and baby need to bond,  to experience, to unite as one during those first hours after birth.  We call it "owning your baby".  During that first hour you will smell, touch, stroke, listen to your baby, she will start to suckle at your breast and will be quite aware of her surrounding.  This  is a time when nurses will want to do all their required things - ask that they be done while baby is still laying on your tummy or chest.  If you are not able to do this --- then have dad do skin to skin, it is that important.