I really appreciate these posts - and thank you for re-posting Jennifer
Tow's message, which was not readable in my email when it was initially
sent.

I think I've written before about the all-day workshop I attended given by
Michel Odent. His slides of real, normal birth and the interactions between
mothers and babies are incredible, especially with his commentary to help us
see what is going on. He talked about how crucial that early connection is
between the mother and baby, and how thoughtlessly and easily we disrupt it.
We know that the early years are important, but there is no more sensitive
time in a person's life than the prenatal, birth and early postpartum
period, as the brain is growing and developing most rapidly at this time.

I also agree that if mothers and babies could be together as in Thailand, we
would see far fewer problems. We have many mothers in our community who have
home births, but again separation is taken very lightly and people expect to
feed every couple of hours at most, not continuously. So I'll be called over
to help with a breastfeeding problem with a one or two-day old baby, born at
home, and I find Grandma off tending the baby (often by giving it a
pacifier) while Mom is in the kitchen preparing lunch. She tells me she's
been putting him to the breast every two or three hours (because they were
told to expect to feed the baby 8 to 12 times in 24 hours), but now they're
worried because he's losing weight or he's fussing a lot in between or
something and they think they need to supplement.

My last three children (hadn't been to LLL yet when I had my first) never
lost weight and had all gained over their birth weight by day four or five.
Although they were born in hospitals, they were never separated from me and
nursed pretty much continuously. I think that's normal newborn behaviour!

I wish we could get away from "how often does the baby feed?" (although of
course I ask that question all the time). I wish we could convey to mothers
that even though the baby is now outside, they are really still one unit and
shouldn't be separated and should be attached most of the time mouth to
breast.

Teresa Pitman
dreaming that we can find a way to give mothers and babies the kind of
births and breastfeeding experiences that they deserve...

We so urgently need to

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