I have been lurking around Lactnet for several months and am finally ready to
introduce myself and make a cogent comment.  I am Linda Stewart, an RN
working as a patient educator at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego.  We have
about 4000 deliveries per year.  We have an 80% lactation rate at discharge
(average 24 hours)  It falls off dramatically by 6 weeks.
We have a low cs rate but a high intervention rate with epidurals, forceps,
suction, etc.  I work with cup feeding when necessary  --- whenever a baby
passes 24 hours without feeding or is "on protocol", eg low blood sugar.  It
is the easiest and most babies take it quite well. ( If a baby must be
supplemented with ABM and will suck, I will use a feeding tube device at the
breast.  That seems to be the least confounding intervention.  .Of course,
babies who suck have less need for the stuff.) If the baby won't suck, the
cup seems to get the stuff in faster without sequella.  Often, after a few
full tummies, the baby will begin to wake and seek the sucking and will latch
well.
 I, too, have found that finger feeding makes the baby seek the rigid form
into his mouth in order to suck.  If mom has soft, short nipples, this
transition is a bit more difficult than if  the mom will long, firmer
nipples.  I resort to this if I can't get the baby to swallow the cupped in
ABM.
Some babies need to learn to suck and the cup doesn't help with that.  Then,
I will use the finger feeding routine to teach the suck.  I seldom have to
use this before 24 hours because most babies will snap out of their sleepy
transition soon after this time period.  I hope my experience will help any
of you still learning these skills.  For further info, please e-mail
privately and [log in to unmask]   Back to lurking.