A premature infant (26 weeks 6 days) in an incubator.Meconium is basically a baby or foetus’ first stool. Turd that is, not furniture item. Meconium is waste matter made up of amniotic fluid, mucus, water, bile, epithelial cells and lanugo (extremely fine downy hairs that the foetus sheds at about 33 to 36 weeks). Normally meconium stored in the infant's intestines until after birth. It doesn’t have much odour, it’s basically sterile, but it’s thick and sticky and in my opinion it’s pretty gross. It is perhaps even more gross when the meconium is expelled into the amniotic fluid. Sometimes (between 5 and 20 percent of the time) this happens during labour or delivery. The situation turns from unpleasant to dangerous if the baby inhales the meconium. It is not wise to breathe stools (of any kind). More . . .