I am developing such a reputation in my neck of the woods. I'm a homebirth
midwife, but very active in the community (our local BF Coalition for
example), and whenever I say something (perhaps about laid-back BF or normal
newborn behavior, or WHATEVER), it gets dismissed as being some crazy
"homebirth thing" and I am reminded (again) that my population is simply
not. like. theirs.

But guess what? All babies are hardwired the same way, and if in the
homebirth system we do things to promote normal newborn behavior, and (this
is the crucial point) we have a nearly 100% breastfeeding success rate
(initiation, exclusivity, and duration), then what, exactly, is useful? To
dismiss our practices as fringe, or to start changing protocols for
everyone?

It's crystal clear to me, but apparently not to everyone, lol.
-
Gina Gerboth, CPM, IBCLC
Safe Passage Birth and Breastfeeding Services
Pueblo, Colorado
www.safepassagebirth.com
719-369-4368


> In addition to expert advice, we keep parents and babies in environments
> that are highly unnatural and non-conducive to instinctive behavior.  I hate
> to think how many times parents on day 3 or 4 will say worriedly that 'the
> baby doesn't like being put in the cot'.  The cots we have are left over
> from two decades back, clear plastic boxes that make babies feel unprotected
> and insecure.  These boxes were necessary when one staff person needed to
> monitor fifteen or twenty babies in one room all night.  How else could you
> check at a glance that no baby was blue in the face?  Somehow we have
> forgotten why the cots are clear plastic, on trolleys, and we continue to
> find space for one in the room of every mother on the postnatal ward.  What
> stronger signal can we send to parents that 'this is where your baby
> belongs'?  And how clear a message would it be to simply stop providing a
> plastic box, and keep the baby with the mother?
>
> When I suggest simply not having the cots, in response to exasperated staff
> coming out of a room where a mother has pulled her call bell to report that
> the baby is crying in its cot, and ask what she should do, nobody says 'YES!
> Why didn't we do this years ago?'  First they laugh, and then they say 'Oh
> Rachel, we can always count on you for the weirdest idea'.  And that's the
> end of it.  The only people I can get through to, are parents.  They get it
> pretty much right away, that babies are either happy or not, and nobody is
> ever in doubt about it when a baby is unhappy, so if you don't see signs of
> unhappiness, the baby is content.  The baby is not going to pretend to be
> happy to spare her exhausted parents the trouble of caring for her - ALL
> parents understand this, but I have far too many colleagues who still
> struggle with allowing a healthy term baby who has cluster fed for 8 hours
> to sleep for more than three hours in a row right afterwards, as they feel
> they are neglectful if they don't see to it that the baby feeds at least
> every three hours, not just 'as many times as it wants'.
>
> -

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