When I had my first child - some 24 years ago - the protocol at my hospital
(and many others at the time) was that the newborn baby got nothing to eat
for the first 12 hours. I think they were given some water to see if they
could swallow normally or something. I had to have a big meeting with
hospital staff while I was pregnant to get permission to breastfeed my baby
from birth - I went in with an armload of studies I'd acquired from LLL to
"prove" that this would be okay and not too harmful to my baby's delicate
digestive system. I was allowed to nurse him for two minutes (a nurse stood
by my bedside timing this) on each side every four hours. But most babies
didn't even start this two minutes every four hours thing until they were at
least 12 hours old.

Remembering that has always helped me not to worry too much about babies who
don't nurse much or at all during those first hours or days. Of course we
should keep working with them, giving them lots of skin-to-skin and
opportunities to nurse, but I wouldn't rush in too quickly with formula if
the baby is otherwise well.

On the other hand, I do think it is useful to encourage the mother to begin
expressing or pumping fairly early on if the baby isn't nursing. I know that
mothers following the protocol I've described tended to have their milk come
in very late, and we know that many failed at breastfeeding.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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