Well, Pat, when I had my first baby in 1977, the rule at the hospital where he was born was: they "tested" the baby with a bottle of glucose-water within the first few hours after birth. No milk feedings until the baby was 24 hours old. Then the baby was brought out every four hours, and if you were one of the very small number of breastfeeding mothers, you were allowed to nurse the baby for two minutes on each breast the first day, four minutes the second day, six minutes the third day, and if all was going well, 10 minutes the fourth day. You were given a bottle of sugar water to top up after each feeding. 

So this research would have been a big deal!

Although I was only 20 when my son was born, I'd done a lot of research and reading and I even met with the hospital staff while I was still pregnant to tell them what I wanted. I breastfed Matthew in the delivery room (had several people come in to watch), nursed him as long as he wanted to at each feeding (I could NOT get them to bring him out more frequently, though), and in the end went home after two days because they were driving me crazy. I was told repeatedly by nurses that I was going to get terrible nipple damage by letting him nurse so long, that my breasts wouldn't have time to "fill up" if I didn't stick to the schedule, and that my baby and I would die if I went home so early. (I was also told that I had the "wrong kind" of nipples for breastfeeding.) 

I also remember being warned that my baby HAD to be put to sleep tummy-down. This was difficult for us because he was in the bed with me and would naturally roll onto his back after nursing to sleep. I felt anxious about it but trying to flip him onto his tummy just woke him up. Oh - turns out they were wrong about that, too.

Teresa

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