Dear Friends:

Mothers imprint (for want of a better word) on behaviors around birth; they 
are learning what to do to keep the baby alive. To illustrate, I believe that 
the ubiquitous presence of baby buckets as standard parts of iinfant care has 
to do with hospital policies that babies are not to be carried, but instead, 
wheeled around in fish tanks. Mothers see this, and copy the behavior at home.

I am wondering if the increase of mothers pumping and bottle-feeding has to 
do with the routine use of technology in labor. If women see that the baby 
won't come out without the use of a variety of machines (fetal monitors, uterine 
monitors, cardiac monitors and pulse oximeters), and the baby comes out and 
goes on a warming table (another elaborate machine), why should she  even think 
or expect that breastfeeding could work without a machine?

Learning by modeling is very subtle, and very powerful in the first few days 
postpartum, for mother as well as for baby.

Just wondering................

warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
Adjunct Faculty, Union Institute and University, Lactation Program
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human Lactation

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