I know that the original poster was attempting to improve outcomes in her hospital, but I think we need to ask a lot of different questions here. For example, how did it become "Baby-Friendly" for babies to be put to breast within an hour of birth? That is baby-unfriendly in every way, b/c it implies that it is every okay to take the baby away in the first place. The highest levels of oxytocin a woman will ever release in her lifetime are in the moments after birth--this opportunity for her, her baby, and the peace of this planet (remember, it is THE hormone of love) will never come again. The baby must be colonized FIRST by the bacteria of the mother and no one else. Both psychology and phsyiology are damaged by any separation.

How is it okay to separate, disorient, and damage mother and baby and then throw the pair back together within some artificially determined time frame and claim we have been "baby-friendly"? This is why we are developing all kinds of interventions such as "self-attachment" protocols. They are a symptom of dis-ease and an effort to heal it, but I would rather we prevent the damage in the first place. 

I think the best analogy is this: imagine being in the midst of making love and someone insists you separate while you are weighed and measured and "cleaned up". Then you are placed back in the same bed to pick up where you left off. Could you? And even if you could manage intercourse (assuming you were left alone, unlike mom and baby), could you achieve the same level of lovemaking that you had previously been engaged in? 


 


Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network, LLC

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