Happy Holidays and a Wonderful, Healthy New Year to Everyone!
    On page 7 in the WHO/Unicef publication "Protecting, Promoting, and
Supporting Breastfeeding" there is a statement that "under normal
circumstances, the newborn needs no other food or drink for the first 2-4 days
of life while lactation is being established."
   There are things to remember here, when one is in the position of setting
up hospital protocols. One is the question: is birth in the US considered
"under normal circumstances? " Secondly, are the baby and the mother in
constant, or nearly constant, skin-to-skin contact so that the mother can
respond to those wee feeding cues and so that the baby is motivated to give
out those tiny signals? Do the hospital staff have the time to teach mothers
all the signs of infant feeding readiness? Thirdly, WHO is made up of
representatives of all nations. If their consensus is that babies can go 2-4
days, the the actual range of tolerance is probably much longer. Remember
those babies in the Mexican earthquake that survived after going for a week
without food or drink, being buried in rubble? They weren't happy, but they
were alive. Remember the old days, when babies were NPO for 24 hours. Just
keep mom and baby together, comfortable, safe and private so they can recover
from the delivery and get to know each other..and give them the time that they
need. Warmly, Nikki