The WHO/UNICEF "breast crawl" video was mentioned recently, and since I've been off lactnet for a good while I checked the archives to see what had been said about it.  I don't think I'm being redundant:

Every mother in the video who is shown breastfeeding (and only those shown breastfeeding) has her face digitally disguised.  This is generally done for criminals and others who have something serious to hide... but breastfeeding mothers??  

The first germs this baby encounters are those of a caregiver, despite their talk about the importance of germ colonization.  

The baby is delivered by Others and immediately and extensively handled by Others.  As far as I know, any mammal mother deprived of the opportunity to examine and clean her newborn herself has impaired bonding as a result.

The video codifies the Dead Mother Latch.  The mother's hands keep the baby from falling off her, but that's about all.  She does make a few brief stroking motions, but I suspect those have been discouraged.  An *extremely* unnatural way for a baby to have his first feed.

The mother is on her back.  Take this scene way back in history, and she'd be lying on her back on... sticks and leaves?  I don't think so.  Whether she delivered squatting or crouching or on all fours or on her side, she would almost certainly either sit up after the birth or at least lie on her side.  You can bet your boots she wouldn't lie completely supine with the baby on her chest, waiting for the baby to take all the initiative.  Michel Odent said once that the best way to control bleeding postpartum is to sit up and lean slightly forward - the position of a squatting mother cuddling her baby - to take pressure of the inferior vena cava.  If you want to *increase* bleeding, he said, lay the mother on her back and put a weight on her stomach.  (To be fair, I don't know if he would still say this; I heard it years ago.)  I certainly can't picture *myself* assuming this position post-birth unless someone made me do it.

The baby is presented - upside down from the mother's perspective - for a brief moment of cheek contact.  In other words, the amount of contact, position, timing, and duration are all controlled by an outsider, not by the mother, who is very much in the passive role of patient throughout the video.

The mother's bunched clothing prevents her from seeing her baby and her baby from seeing her.  There is absolutely no eye contact between them after that brief cheek-touch, and none is even possible.

When the video talks about this "initiating the bonding process between the baby and the mother", the mother is having her head stroked and repositioned by someone, as if she were a very ill patient, and of course she isn't looking at her baby because she can't see over her own clothing. 

When the video talks about a "beautiful moment of joy," the mother is looking not at her baby - whom she can't see in any event - but at the crowd around her.  Maybe she's saying, "What's the baby doing now?"

I counted a minimun of 12 onlookers.

Despite the cheering and applause when the baby gets the nipple in her mouth, it looks to me like a terrible latch.  If that were *my* baby, I would immediately want to sit up so I could assist her in a more satisfying mouthful!  But then, babies were never meant to do this entirely on their own.  I can't think of a mammal mother who doesn't assist her baby in some way.  Dogs have to lie on their side to provide access, so they do.  Horses have to stand, so they do.  Kangaroos have to be upright for the newborn to reach the pouch, so they don't lie on their sides, and so on.  Maternal help may be minimal but it is very, very real and very, very important.

The whole video feels to me like an advertisement for disembodied birth.  Babies are able to self-attach?  Fine, it seems to say, then let's make sure they do it with as much distance from the mother as possible.  Let's not let visual and skin contact occur simultaneously, and let's not let this mother follow her own instincts in any way, while we force the baby to do his/her best in a vacuum.  

Breast crawl?  Frankly, it made my *skin* crawl!  Was anyone else as put off by it as I was?  The official position has gone from being all about the mother making the baby breastfeed to taking the mother out of it altogether.  We have much, much better videos now.  Let's make sure those to whom the baby-led concept is new see *good* videos about the mother-baby dance, not something as bleak and ignorant of the humanity of breastfeeding as this one.

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY  USA,
who hasn't had a good tirade in a long time now :-)
www.wiessinger.baka.com





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