Dear Folks:
  Reading the very interesting posts on smell used as a way to identify
illness reminds me of something I heard Dr. Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg say at this
years International Conference in Orlando: that molecules can go  into the
nose and send impulses right to the limbic system, bypassing the cortex.
Limbic system has connection to emotions.
        Humans are pretty feeble with their sense of smell when compared to other
mammals. Yet most of us can recognise things like maple syrup urine disease
and ketoacidosis and hemorrhage by smell. One never forgets some smells, such
as pseudomonas ( nasty nasty germ) and klebsiella (another nasty one).
Advertisers trade on the powerful emotions linked to smells when they design
products. I am still hooked on a certain, old-fashioned detergent because I
remember the smell of sheets washed in it drying in the sun.
        Babies hone in to a nipple wiped with their own amniotic fluid, which might
be helpful for in-hospital breastfeeding support. Anybody saving amniotic
fluid from a potentially traumatic birth (epidural/vacuum and/or forceps/ deep
suctioning and or intubation) to assist with latch-on? Wouldn't it be useful
to keep that on hand for a while, to be used if their is a latch-on problem?
Couldn't one just toss it if baby did latch without difficulty?  Maybe we are
discarding something prematurely. Warmly, Nikki Lee