Nicki wondered:

After spending a week working as an LC in a local hospital, I wonder if
anybody ever sees a normal newborn anymore.

Yes, some of us still do, Nicki!  Where I work some mothers still do have
unmedicated births.  And I love being the room with the family in that first or
second day of life. Quiet wide open eyes gazing up at mom, or turning towards
Dad's voice.  I tell them it's a privilege for me to be there with them.
Surprisingly on occasion some 17 or 18 y olds come in and birth with no medication
and no previous birthing classes.  Don't know if it's because their moms might
have done the same or if they choose to.

Nonetheless this doesn't always give a perfectly latching baby.  There are
still some with disorganized or dysfunctional sucks. I see many habits acquired
in utero.  Sucking with the tongue forward behind the upper alveolar ridge
(upper gum), or sucking with the tongue against the roof of the mouth.  One baby
a few months ago obviously had had his bunched fingers to his mouth and had
started tonguing them-- not a constant suck, but kind of lapping it.  It was
such a habit on the first day of life that this baby would latch on beautifully
and then switch to this acquired tongue movement right in the middle of
suckling at the breast.  These things usually are more apparent on the first day or
two and when the milk becomes more copious, the steady suck swallow (& breathe)
seems to help them learn to drop the habit.

 And many mothers who have received medication have babies who latch fine.
We tend to use nubain for analgesia (IM) and if the mother really can't be
persuaded not to, an intrathecal anesthesia which wears off much faster than an
epidural.

A few years back I started keeping track of who had had an intrathecal
(usually fentanyl) and who had had no meds for a few weeks, and latch problems were
equally distributed among both groups.

Mardrey Swenson, IBCLC

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