Marilyn --
My experience has not been the same as yours. The question is an interesting
and important one.  Does anyone know whether there is a good prospective
study of this?  If not, it would be a great research project!

Have you done a prospective evaluation of this?  Is this anecdotal or
clear-cut?  We have not observed this at our hospital.  If it is in fact the
case, there are several reasons why a baby who had a scheduled c/s might have
a poor suck.  1) Babies born by c/s generally have not cleared as much
amniotic fluid from their lungs at birth, so they spend more time in
transition after birth, which means they're more focused on breathing than
eating.  2) Scheduled c/s can happen for several reasons, including breech,
which may indicate slightly low muscle tone in the baby, which could
interfere w/ suck.  3) what are the moms getting for pain management after
the c/s?  If significant amounts of opiods, this could affect suck.

Elizabeth Steiner MD, FAAFP
Portland OR

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