I have been off lactnet due to a computer repair, and I am glad to come in
on this fascinating thread. I am just thinking that perhaps the hormone
milieu is poised for a letdown right after the birth - oxytocin levels?
Perhaps the first feed should occur before the placenta is expelled? The
placenta delivery changes the hormone milieu and maybe that first feed is
physiologically supposed to occur before it.
Taking this further, *if* the first feed does occur in first hour, and the
larger amts of colostrum are consumed (or expressed), then might that lead
to higher volumes in next feeds?
Is there some very early involution that occurs if the infant is not fed, or
milk not expressed, in those early hours? Reabsorption of the non-used
colostrum?
Sad to say, babies at my facility are not often fed in first hour. The baby
then goes in for bath, etc. and maybe takes 4-8 hrs to get out to mom. The
babies, sadly, get the obligatory glucose water feed (about 15 ml) in
transition time. :(

Laurie Wheeler, IBCLC, MN, RN - I would really love to work for that
practice in Connecticut!
New Orleans Louisiana, s.e. USA

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