I have just been given the transcript of a talk given at a hospital in
London, U.K by Prof Hepper. He is Professor of Psychology at The Queen's
University of Belfast and Director of the Fetal Behaviour Research
Centre at The Queen's University and Royal Maternity Hospital, Belfast.
He was talking about pre-natal learning abilities, and part of it was
about breastfeeding as follows:

'Amniotic link with breastfeeding

The second area where I think that it is crucial to learn is that of
breastfeeding. The same process that flavours the amniotic fluid also
flavours the mother's breast milk. Hence, if the mother eats garlic this
can be found in both her amniotic fluid and her breast milk. I would
suggest that one of the important functions of prenatal learning is to
acquaint the infant with the mother's breast milk. It is very easy in
today's society  where there is availability of bottled milk to forget
the importance of breastfeeding. However, when the mother-infant dyad
was evolving, the newborn baby had no other than the mother's milk for
nutrition. If the baby did not feed, it died. As simple as that, there
was no other option. It had to take breast milk in order to survive.
Therefore one would expect everything possible to be done to ensure that
the baby actually ingests breast milk. One way of doing that is reducing
the unfamiliarity of the substance. If breast milk is made a familiar
substance, such as similar to the ammiotic fluid which the baby has been
happily swallowing for something in the order of 25 weeks, when the baby
is put to the breast it may recognise this familiar substance and
readily start to drink it. Given the importance of ensuring that the
baby feeds, it makes some sense to prime the individual to start
feeding.'

He goes on to describe how he asked mothers 24 hours after delivery to
rate the ease of establishing feeding. He compared that to whether their
diet had changed compared to the last 4 weeks of pregnancy. Those who
had changed their diet i.e. in hospital, had more difficulty feeding.
'This suggests that familiarity with the "flavour" of breastmilk makes
it easier to establish breasfeeding.'

Fascinating!
--
Carolyn Westcott RN IBCLC

--
Carolyn Westcott