Just curious.  I work with a nurse that shares my concern about epidurals.
She has worked at this hospital for many years and delivered many, many
babies without meds so has noticed a big difference now that epidurals have
become popular here. We talk a lot about infant behavior and she has been
noticing for awhile that "epidural babies" seem to have long awake periods
where they just seem to stare and show no feeding cues.  I have heard her
say many times "baby is awake but is not in the least interested in
nursing".  These are babies that also do not nurse well at all before 24
hours.  "Natural babies" especially (which is very rare anymore) tend to
feed frequently in the first 24 hours and maybe have some alert time, but
after a really good feeding! "Fentanyl babies" tend to be sleepy, but don't
seem to have these long awake periods.  Also it seems to be the "epidural
babies" that cosequently had a complicated birth.

Has anyone else seen this?  I feel many of the newer nurses do not really
know how a baby is supposed to act because they are so used to medicated
babies. I would like to get together a power point that shows both visually
and in writing how babies are suppose to behave in the first 24 hours.  I
am afraid that I am forgetting what is normal also!  :-(

Thanks again,

Christine Lichte, IBCLC, LLL Leader

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