My oldest child is now 21 and when I first started to help breastfeeding
mothers, the hospital in our community had very strict policies. The baby
stayed in the nursery for the first eight hours to "recover from the birth"
and was given a pacifier if it cried (no food at all). Mothers were told
that the baby was born with extra fluids to get it through this time. Then
the baby came out to the mother every four hours, no sooner, and the mother
was allowed to nurse for one minute on each side. The next day, she could
nurse for two minutes on each side, etc., three minutes the next day - up to
a maximum of ten minutes per side.

Is this a good way to get breastfeeding going?? Definitely not. But despite
this, if a mother called me as soon as she got home from the hospital
(usually day 5 at that time) or knew about demand feeding from LLL meetings
before she had the baby, she would be able to get breastfeeding working
well. Certainly not in every case, but often.

I also remember from that time that the goal was to have baby back up to his
birthweight at 4 weeks - because they all lost a fair bit of weight under
this regimen.

Anyway, I keep all this in mind when I talk to mothers who weren't able to
breastfeed right away, for whatever reason. It certainly doesn't mean "all
is lost."

Teresa Pitman
LLL Leader (for 20 years!)
Oakville, Ontario, Canada (near Toronto)