Interesting post. I have been wondering the same thing myself. I don’t have any answers but I do have a few thoughts. First, if babies have fluid in their stomachs for almost 9 months then why would it be irritating after birth? Why would it not just go through their digestive system like any other fluid? Like Ann said, it makes no sense that this fluid would need to come out through the mouth to make a baby feel better. I have always heard that c/s babies, especially planned c/s, and babies from a fast delivery are more spitty because they did not get the fluid squeezed out of them. What I see these babies do I would classify as vomiting. They are not just dribbling fluid out of their mouth like a baby does after a good meal. I always associate vomiting with an infection or stress. Do other mammals gag and vomit after they are born? What about c/s animals? Animal moms give a lot of tactile stim to their babies after birth with all of the licking, which, according to Montague (book listed below) stimulates the gastrointestinal and respiratory organs to function properly. He also states that the human fetus, with its larger head and birth presentation may get a lot of this tactile stim on its head, face, nose, and lips from the contracting uterus-which may correspond to the licking seen in other mammals. I have some thoughts about vomiting/gagging and stress. I just finished reading “Touch: The significance of the Human Skin” by Ashley Montague. He writes a lot about the tactile stimulation a baby receives while being squeezed by a contracting uterus and the trip through the birth canal. Montague states that the function of the birth process is to prepare the fetus for postnatal functioning. He also states, “…When the skin has not been adequately stimulated (through contractions and squeezing through birth canal) the peripheral and autonomic nervous systems are also inadequately stimulated (which affects the postnatal function of principal organ systems).” He writes a lot about skin stim. and function of the gastrointestinal and respiratory organs. He mentions nothing about the importance of squeezing to push out fluid. I wonder if the vomiting and gagging has more to due with the lack of skin stim, which would in turn cause stress on the organ systems. Is it possible that all babies are born with fluid in their stomachs, but only the stressed babies vomit it up? Would lots of skin to skin and massage directly after birth keep these babies from vomiting? I had a baby that was born by forceps after failed vacuum. The labor was long and mom pushed for 2 hours. This baby had plenty of squeezing, but yet she still vomited a fair amount of fluid several times, this all happened during the times she was being handled. She is also what I would consider a stressed baby due to birth trauma and, and as usual, limited holding or skin to skin. Today, I was attempting to wake her from a calm sleep. I was very gentle, but as soon as she opened her eyes she started to gag. Nothing came up since she did not have any fluid left, probably. I think what I am trying to say is maybe it is not the fluid itself that causes baby to vomit. Maybe the baby is gagging and vomiting due to stress (from lack of sufficient skin stim.) and if there is fluid in their stomach it will come up. Maybe the way to solve the problem would be not to suction the stomach but place baby skin to skin with mom for as long a period as possible to reduce stress. I don’t think vomiting is a normal biological function like voiding or stooling, ect. I wouldn’t think nature intended for babies to vomit fluid in their stomachs as a preferred way to eliminate it. The gastrointestinal tract is made for moving food and fluid in one direction-fluid going the other direction should be considered abnormal. Although we always tell parents that vomiting/gagging in the first day is perfectly normal and good for baby to get all that nasty fluid out!! Anyway, these are my thoughts. I may be off base, but it is fun to think outside the box sometimes! Christine Lichte, IBCLC, LLL Leader *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html