May 16, Susan Moxley wrote:

She finds that L & D nurses do not see themselves as part of
the process of breastfeeding, that is the role of the post-partum nurse.
She is often sabotaged in her atempts to work with these mothers, they will
send her to a coffee break and when she gets back the infant has been
"shipped" to the nursery! As a nurse I feel outraged that other nurses would
do this.

The window of opportunity for correct latch, suck is that first hour or so,
we know it is associated with successful breastfeeding from research.  It
also provides the mother and infant with positive reinforcement.  Research
tells us that infants who are separated from their mother in this period
have more disorganized suck patterns.  Therefore it would seem to me
appropriate to work hard at changing the policies and practices in the
labour and delivery area and get these nurses to recognize what a major role
they have in the process of successful breastfeeding.  They need education,
polices must be changed to give the mother and infant unlimited access and
so on.

***
There is a wonderful 6 minute video that speaks volumes on the importance of
those first few minutes after delivery that can help educate the Labor and
Delivery nurses who apparently need a reality check(!). It is called "Delivery
Self Attachment" and shows some of Righard's studies in Sweden concerning the
effects of medications and separation after birth on a baby's ability to latch
on unassisted. He shows 3 different mother-baby pairs. The first is an
unmedicated birth, no separation. Baby is placed on mom's bare chest and allowed
to "do his thing" with no help from mom. He crawls up mom's chest, finds the
nipple, latches on, and sucks! The first time I saw that I was totally amazed.
Then I found myself totally amazed that I was amazed. We have gotten SO far away
from the "natural" way of doing things that we don't even recognize our ability
to do what other mammals do routinely!

The second baby I think is both medicated and separated from mom for a number of
hours. When this baby is placed on mom's chest, it is as if he has no purpose
and no idea why he is there. Even with help from mom he is unable to
successfully latch on.

I never can remember what the third baby is--some intermediate between the two
(anybody else remember?) and this baby is able to latch on, though not as
quickly as the first.

This 6 minute film says SO much in so LITTLE time and might be an eye opener to
those nurses. Seems like it is available through Kittie Franz?

Dr. Righard will be speaking at the LLLI conference this summer in Chicago. I
hope he is as good as his film!

Melissa Vickers, IBCLC
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