dear camille,

you are obviously overlooking the important things about this procedure:

-humans would never have survived if we had not, down through the ages, been
aspirating the stomach contents of newborns

-spitting up the first feedings is to be avoided at all costs, including costs
such as totally screwing up the breastfeeding relationship by that "oral
defensiveness" you mentioned (no such thing, just like there is no such thing
as nipple confusion)

-"because we have always done it this way" is the most important rule in any
business; you can't mess with tradition

carol brussel IBCLC
who lives in a town where they aspirate stomach contents of preemies because
"those scales aren't accurate" (then why do they weigh the baby every day?)
and i guess also because they believe that stomach fluids don't affect this
type of measuring routine