Jennifer:  I disagree with your first point but fully agree with your 
second.  I'm not sure what difference home-birth vs. hospital birth should 
make on weight loss.  In all of my hospital experience and my OWN six 
children, I have very rarely seen a baby who does not loose weight 
immediately after birth.  Up to a 10% loss is expected and considered 
normal, and they are "given" two weeks to re-gain it.  Newborns loose a lot 
of fluids as and shortly after they are born (pee, meconium, excess tissue 
fluid).  Add to that the fact that while colostrum is liquid gold for it's 
qualities, breast-fed babies do not get VOLUME to start adding or holding 
their weight for 1-5 days.  My last baby lost 12 ounces in her first 24 
hours of life, on the same scale that was left in the room.  It was a 
drug-free, uninterrupted, hospital birth.  She never left my side and 
nursed the first time as soon as I pulled her out.  My milk came in almost 
immediately-by about 12 hours after she was born.  It still took her a 
while to re-gain up to her birth-weight.  So, who knows.

As for the fat, rolly polly breast-fed babies, NONE of my children were 
that way.  The ones who nursed (which wasn't all of them for various 
reasons) did so well.  I had adequate supplies, they nursed frequently, 
etc.  All of them were just "average", two of them even in the low 
percentiles (one of which is now 6 1/2 and only weighs 38 pounds-can't 
blame breast milk anymore for her!!!).  My gramma and mom were always 
making comments that breast-fed babies are supposed to have rolls of 
fat.  I always said, "well, MINE don't".  The oversupply is an interesting 
point.  In my anecdotal experience with friends who had "Fat" breast-fed 
babies, they ALL commented on having "plenty of milk", while I seemed to 
have "enough, but just enough".  My only "rolly polly" babies were formula 
fed.  One of them is now 8 and 120 pounds :(.   She had an extremely rapid 
weight gain around one month old when she was put on formula.  My current 
nursling is 18 months old and nurses AND eats solids like a horse and does 
not gain weight (she eats more solid food than my 5 year old).  It's all 
very interesting.

Beth Fitzpatrick, mommy of 6


>I do not believe it is in any way healthy or normal to lose weight in the 
>first days or week of life. Homebirth babies rarely lose any weight at 
>all. Since uninterrupted birth is the biological norm and homebirth is the 
>closet to that, I would venture to say that  what we observe in homebirths 
>is normal and any behavior seen in a hospital setting is suspect.
>
>Further, I am not convinced that all those roly-poly breastfed babeis who 
>grow so rapidly are healthy. Many of those babies are growing on a very 
>high-lactose load, caused by poor latch and hence oversupply. I have posed 
>this question before--shouldn't we be concerned that such growth is a risk 
>factor for obesity and diabetes?
>Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA

"When in despair, remember that all through history the way of truth and 
love has always won; there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time 
they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall." Gandhi

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