The first meconium, commonly including the mucus plug, was collected from fifty full-term infants. Clinical data included birthweight, gender, mode of delivery, and time that the meconium was passed after birth. The meconium was examined for the presence of heme by both Hemoccult and Hematest. Iso-electric capillary electrophoresis was performed on some of the specimens. The amount of meconium obtained varied from 0.3 grams to 8.1 grams. Characteristics of the sample group were as follows: mean birthweight was 3235 gm, there were 27 females and 23 males, the combined C-section rate, primary and repeat, was 26%. The time of first meconium averaged seven hours with only two neonates passing meconium beyond 24 hours. Although all of the meconium specimens had green pigment in solution, none tested positive for heme either by Hemoccult or Hematest tablet. We conclude that the first meconium has insufficent heme to test positive by simple testing methods. A positive test for heme on subsquent stool specimens should raise clinical suspiciion for swallowed blood(maternal) or gastrointestinal pathology.