i saw a baby recently whose mother was given demerol during the birth,
absolutely comatose, it did take him several days to begin to respond to the
world. dr. hale said at a conference once in explaining the difficult effects
of demerol that there was no reason to use this drug as there are plenty of
better substitutes, the metabolite is potent and has a very long life.

as to gestational age, my one untampered-with birth was of a 42 or 43 week
baby (depending on whose dates you believe), my others were both past 41
weeks when various things caused their births. i have heard it is familial,
and my mother had longer than normal pregnancies as well. it works well, you
have great big babies who are practically ready for kindergarten.

its nice to see that its not ME complaining about hospitals. see? i am not
imagining things. i had a breastfeeding class with two couples; one had a
child already. when the subject of birth came up i pointed out that using
drugs during delivery can indeed affect the baby. that didn't cause much
response until i showed the self-attachment video. riveting! it caused a
major shift in their perceptions of "normal, hospitalized" birthing.

carol brussel IBCLC

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