Dear Listmates, 
 
It's been a lively and informative discussion of the various scenarios we  
are seeing in the hospital regarding the difficulties some women are having  
initiating breastfeeding within the context of a "routine medicalized  birth."  
 
I know it has been mentioned in the past, but perhaps some of the  newer 
listmates might not be familiar with Mary Kroeger and Linda  Smith's book "Impact 
of Birthing Practices on Breastfeeding."  It is  well worth reading.
 
One of the things we can do is be extremely proactive in our prenatal  
teaching of immediate and undisturbed Skin to Skin contact after birth, mother  and 
baby condition permitting.  No going to the warming table, no  passing of the 
baby around to family or friends, not even the partner, no  routine procedures 
until the baby has had several attempts, hopefully successes,  at latching.  
I recommend delaying the baby bath for 24 hours and then have  it done right 
in the room, so there is no mother baby separation..  The Vit  K and the eye 
prophylaxis can be done right in the room after a few hours.   I have seen the 
mothers who have done this get breastfeeding off to a great  start, even with 
many birth interventions.  One was my own dear daughter  who had just about 
every known obstetric intervention, except a c-section.   I am encouraging women 
to write a "newborn post-birth plan" to cover this  departure from the regular 
newborn care.  Respiratory therapy attends  all births here and when it is 
explained to them by the staff nurse that this is  what the mom plans on doing,  
the RT has had no issues.
 
Of course the mom and partner have to be willing to embrace this concept of  
care and it will probably be difficult for them when the family and friends 
all  want their share of the newborn, so we talk about the various ways they can 
 overcome that hurdle.  It is so helpful to get the staff nurses behind you  
and I think that most of them are willing to try to improve the post birth  
maternity care practices which can lead to more breastfeeding successes. 
 
 
Mary-Jane  Sackett, RN, IBCLC, RLC, CCE
Registered Lactation Consultant, Certified  Childbirth Educator, MCH Visiting 
Nurse
Pittsfield, in the Beautiful  Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html