A thought and a question.
Thought: My hunch is that babies are not born knowing: "If I'm hungry
and I cry, that nice lady will put me to the breast and that stuff will
come out which will make me feel better." That's why in the first week,
some of them are so "polite" and "good" and sleep through their own
hunger. I think it take them a week to ten days to figure it out. Most
babies, when given lots of practice and free access to the breast and
lots of attentive responding to their instinctive cuing, put the pieces
of the puzzle together and sometime in the second week, they know what
to expect and start to become more assertive. If there is not a lot of
exposure to the breast and a lot of experience of hunger being resolved
at the breast, I think some babies "give up" and stay asleep.
A question: I thought that babies only suck hard in that deep rhythmic
way when there is a let-down, and then revert to the shallow "casual"
sucking which maintains suction and stimulates the breast until the next
let-down. How long does a let-down last? I wonder sometimes how much
making mothers anxious about whether the baby is sucking and swallowing
may interfere with their relaxation and ability to let down. When I sit
next to a mom and point out the let down and the audible swallowing and
then we both sit there waiting for the next one, how much is that likely
to get in the way of oxytocin doing its work?
Eva Bild
Breastfeeding Counselor in Victoria BC
Eva Bild, MA, CD (DONA)
Certified Doula, Childbirth Educator, Breastfeeding Counsellor
Mothering Touch Centre
1562 Fort Street
Victoria, BC
250-595-4905
www.motheringtouch.ca
Kathy Eng wrote:
> I wish hospital staff would see normally born babies with no drugs so
> they would see alert babies who actively suck as "NORMAL" instead of
> thinking these sleepy, drugged babies are why breastfed babies "need"
> supplements of formula by bottle. One of the things we teach in our
> Babies R Us breastfeeding class is active sucking to transfer milk. We
> talk about sucking in spurts of 10 or more jaw movements up and down
> before taking a short break of 3-5 seconds and getting going again.
> And actively sucking for at least 10 minutes before moving into
> "comfort" sucking. Baby opens eyes, fists open and arms relax and baby
> is participating. So many babies just latch on and don't suck and
> everyone thinks that is normal. So of course they don't gain weight,
> get jaundiced, mom's milk supply down regulates, etc.
>
> What I have found with starving babies is that it takes about 48 hours
> of increasing the feeds before you get a baby who begins to
> participate and wake and cry more. After 2-3 days of increasing
> feeding amounts, these babies often get very hungry and ask to eat
> more frequently than normal. They will no longer tolerate low or poor
> feedings, which is a good thing, but scares mothers as they had a
> quiet baby before and now they have a hungry and demanding baby.
>
> Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC
>
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