Sharon,
Your observations and questions are very interesting. Gonneke's response to
you was coming from the angle that moms/babies are separated and that
perhaps moms are not responding to subtle feeding cues. However, I think you
were referring to moms/babes in bed together and just sleeping for long
periods together, after having a good first feed after the birth. I think
that is very likely normal.
In the USA, with a typical hospital birth and very short postpartum stay,
the hcp's would likely be very uncomfortable with this behavior pattern.
I think what would be a really good thing to do, if you could, would be to
follow a group of babies who are behaving like this. Especially if there is
a longer postpartum stay in hospital, or if home-birthed, a good home
visiting program (which we don't have in USA). You could record the feeds
and the daily weights, diaper output could actually be weighed instead of
counted. And then see if (1) when does baby start to wake up and cue more
consistently, (2) when does mom's milk "come in," (3) when does baby reach
his lowest weight and start gaining, (4) how much does he gain by the end of
the first and/or second week. Things like that would be very useful and
could inform our future practice. This would be a descriptive study, I
guess, since babies would not be randomized into ones allowed to feed
totally on demand, and ones who are being awakened by the moms or nurses at
set intervals.
Don't know if anyone has looked at this before in the literature.
Laurie Wheeler, RN, MN, IBCLC
MISSISSIPPI USA

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