I’ve heard some very interesting and wise words on smell from Sarah Gill here in the UK and from Diane Wiessinger. 
When a baby is born and does the breast crawl, the amniotic fluid on his hands as he searches around and finds the breast leaves a trail that he can smell, that helps him to find it again. Like lighting an airplane landing path.
Apparently the Montgomery glands also emit an odour that is similar to the familiar smell of amniotic fluid.
Newborn babies aren’t really visually driven in the way that adults are — they respond more to touch and smell, which is why they can “feel” their way to the breast so well with their hands and faces bobbing on mother’s breast, as the breast crawl and biological nurturing work has shown. We know that they react to the smell of their own mother’s milk as seen in the experiments Heather has referred to.

In her talk about mammals, Diane Wiessinger has also shared powerful evidence that in other species of mammals, smell and even taste (licking) is a crucial part of bonding between mother and infant. Indeed if a bitch gives birth under anaesthetic by caesarian, she will reject her own puppies when she smells them and licks them, unless they have been smeared with the placenta etc. While smell is not such a powerful sense in humans, it is more powerful than we often realise (think about how memories can be so strongly evoked by a familiar smell, or the effectiveness of having mother smell baby’s pajamas when she is expressing).

It is just one more small set of clues, but it can help a newborn to find the breast again a little more easily if his mother doesn’t wash off that “airplane landing path” on her chest for the first little while, and if the baby’s first bath is delayed until after the first feed. Of course she could wash everywhere else without affecting this.  And of course if a mother is feeling wretched without a full shower, then that isn’t going to help breastfeeding either! Mothers need to feel as comfortable and confident as possible — I’m sure this has at least as strong an effect —  and for some women washing will help this. So this isn’t a mandatory protocol, just another aspect of our biology that we can use to help mothers and babies to connect and that can aid in getting breastfeeding going at first.

Wish I’d known all this when my first baby was born…

Helen


Helen Gray IBCLC
London UK

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