Christine,
The baby you describe fits the picture of about 40-60% of the babies I see
in my hospital practice.  Part of the reason these babies are so sleepy is
due to the very nature of most hospital births.  In my hospital, there can
be as many as 25 births a day, 95% are epidural at the very
least........need I say more?
My way of dealing with the sleepy baby is to teach the mother to hand
express a little colostrum on a spoon and feed the baby, if he hasn't shown
any interest in the breast by 12 hours after birth.
5 tiny spoons of colostrum from each breast every 2-3 hours will keep the
baby from losing too much weight, ( which in our hospital means that the
mother goes home and the baby stays, and may get artificial milk), gets the
mother's milk moving and increasing in quantity, and of course feeds the
baby!! By about day 2, the babies recover from the birth and start feeding.
As for head smashing, this is one of the things that most bothers me, and I
try to teach the nurses and the mothers not to do this.  It makes the babies
aversive even to breastfeeding position after that!!
Your gentle approach and ability to teach the mother to latch the baby
verbally will be a much needed skill if you can teach it to the nurses.
Good luck!!
Esther Grunis, IBCLC
Lis Maternity Hospital
Tel Aviv
Breastfeeding Medical Center
Moshav Udim
Israel

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