>Heather wrote, a propos of Glenni's clenching baby:
>
><< I have seen remarkable results with cranial osteopathy (as we call it here)
> with upset babies, but the babies have been older. My approach would be to
> go with what the mother can do hersef first.  >>
>
>
>Heather, I understand and agree with your bias that we should assume mothers
>and babies can do a lot on their own through restoration of normal conditions.
>
>However, in cases where a sensible professional has reason to believe that
>mom & baby are having real trouble -- that waiting will undermine confidence
>more than build it, and in any case seems, in the counselor's judgment,
>unlikely to be sufficient -- why would we wait?

Because the first thing to try is to restore or establish the normal...

Of course, the person on the ground, with the mother and baby there, is
better able to judge...but there was nothing in Glenni's post to indicate
that anything like skin-to-skin, or Nikki's good suggestion of co-bathing,
had been tried. This baby is in hospital,  and it is probably safe to
assume that unless there is bedding-in as routine, the baby may be in a
crib, may even not be roomed in or may be partially roomed in, and there
may be all sorts of hospital-type dynamics interfering with just getting
mother and baby together.

'Going with what the mother can do herself' - quoting myself - had not been
tried, as far as I could tell.
>
>We advise against waiting to clip frenula until after speech is damaged.  We
>advise all kinds of "early intervention" to toddlers, such as speech therapy,
>much earlier than was done even ten years ago, based on research that
>suggests it is more helpful to more children.  We advise treating bumps and
>other causes of inflammation with ice right away, not waiting until they are
>already swelling.

Sorry, Elisheva, I do not see these very physical events as being
comparable to restoring or establishing the normality of the bf
relationship.
>
>Supporting mothers & babies to do what they can naturally do seems like a
>good bias.  But I personally would be cautious about applying it in cases
>where a small, safe, potentially reassuring I"this pain is not your fault")
>intervention can be a big help.

Yes - but it wouldn't be the first thing to try, for me, anyway.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html