>Don't they think these babies' heads might hurt as much as their mommies'
>perineums? 

I used to go from room to room in the hospital asking moms to lower TVs,
reduce light in the room and ask people to speak softly and  to treat the
baby as if he/she had a migraine...   After all, I said, your baby was
coming head first - and sometimes those labors were long and hard!   I
think babies DO have headaches and "shut down" if there's too much going on
in the room (there were often 4-5 visitors, as well as TV, etc.).  

This would encourage baby to look up...look out...and start exploring the
world! 

Add to this some "skin to skin", some hand expression of colostrum that
made the baby "smell the bacon" (sorry to our non-pork-eating colleagues,
but you get the idea), and often we'd get baby looking for food without
nurses needing to perform awakening (and often unpleasant) techniques.  

(Truth be told, sometimes I found that just touching the baby's head
awakened him/her, but not because they LIKED it - I think they were
responding with a worry..."oh, is it going to start again???" ) 

Jeanette Panchula, RN, IBCLC
Vacaville, CA

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