Rachel wrote: <<maybe it's more effective to let them know how they will need to accommodate the baby's reduced ability to get to the breast if they want breastfeeding to go as smoothly as possible after their epidural. . . . This should not be presented as though it were piles of 'extra' work, but just the normal scheme of things.>> I think this is a great idea -- just let pregnant women know right off the bat that if they're planning on an epidural, they'll also need to plan for a sleepy baby/disorganized suck. When my babies were brand-new newborns, I couldn't believe how many people would say in amazement, "She's so alert!" I thought, "Do they think babies are born with their eyes shut, like kittens?" And then I went to work at a hospital whose epidurals produced extremely sleepy babies. I've never seen such sleepy babies! And this was after years of working as a nursery nurse at three other hospitals that also had high epidural rates. But in those hospitals, most of the epidurals' side effects were on the mother side -- the moms looked wiped out, couldn't walk for a very long time, couldn't pee. Yet the babies were alert and would nurse. At this other hospital, the moms looked great after delivery and were up and around quickly, but their babies went to sleep after a few hours and didn't wake up for at least a few days. (Well, you know what I mean!) Very frustrating, especially because other hospital staff led the parents to believe that this situation was the norm. So I've wondered what was different about those epidurals. What are the differences that the rest of you have seen with regard to various epidural medications? And does a hospital's anesthesiology group have a medication protocol that they all follow, or does each anesthesiologist follow his or her individual preference? Have any of you ever put forth a research-based request to your hospital's anesthesiology department to use certain medications over others? Jennifer Herrin, RN, IBCLC Germany *********************************************** 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(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html