In a message dated 11/19/00 8:55:38 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> The other day I had a baby who was over
> an hour old and still didn't look interested in the brest. Do you back off
>

Yes! I rarely intervene in the 1st 12 hrs and usually hold off for about 24
hrs (if baby is OK). I have been to several conferences where this has been
the topic of discussion. It is the hardest question to find an answer to, but
general concensus seems to be, let them take the 1st 24 hrs to get
aquainted--lots of skin-to-skin and breast contact and feeding will usually
happen.

I like to mention the time line to parents that states babies are alert for
the 1st 2 hrs, then sleep most of the next 6-12 hrs. before really becoming
alert again. I also teach them wake & sleep states--hard to wake a baby from
deep sleep, but usually successful during active sleep. I also caution NOT to
overstimulate by trying continuously to wake a baby for an hour at a time or
passing baby from visitor to visitor. And, speaking of visitors, if baby
happens to show cues while visitors are there, they must give baby to mom so
that she can breastfeed. Babies' feedings are the most important aspect of
these early hours of contact. Now if we can just convince the rest of the
mother-baby staff of this, we will have some very successful breastfeeding
couples.

Laura Hart
Winter Park, FL

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