>From:    Cindy Curtis <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: nurses letting babies sleep at night
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>This was on another list im on.......
>
>"However, as a night nurse, when a woman has been up in labor all night,
>had
>company all day, and has a sleeping baby, I won't wake the baby up (and
>ultimately the mother) for the baby to "try" to feed unless it has been
>upwards
>of 5 hours since the last attempt.  Most of the time, if you wake up a
>baby in
>the first 24 hours to feed, it wakes up the mother and the baby falls
>asleep at
>the breast while the mother has her eyelids propped open with
>toothpicks.  Not
>really the experience to make her want to continue to nurse, is it??
>One of our
>LC's says "it is not our priority to let the mother rest before she goes
>home,
>we NEED to TEACH her to feed her baby".  My feeling is that we can teach
>her how
>to do it so well that we make her give it up before she has a chance to
>see how
>she will like it, especially the parents that are somewhat ambiguous
>about their
>method of feeding--we should encourage the breastfeeding by giving the
>mother
>all of the information we can, and then letting her set the rules, or
>she will
>not play the game.
>I know what all of the literature says, and I am not debunking it, but
>in the
>real world, unless you support the mother to nurse on her terms, more
>than
>likely she will quit. So, try to get the baby to nurse, nurse, nurse
>during the
>daytime hours, and allow for some rest at night.  We want the baby to
>learn that
>nighttime is for sleeping anyway, don't we?""
>
>                <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
>                {       Cindy Curtis , RN , IBCLC                 }
>                {        Virginia , USA                           }
>                {         mailto:[log in to unmask]              }
>                {          http://www.tidalwave.net/~cindy        }
>                <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
>Cindy,

Thank you so much for including this post from another listserve.

I hope that some day we breastfeeding advocates are witness to a change in
priorities. I know many OB nurses, and they ARE caaring people...otherwise
they could not do the much needed work they do. AND with increased
information and training re: 1)the change in the microbiology of the
intestinal tract of the newborn human fed foods other than human milk and
2)the increased risk of allergy from the introduction of just one scant feed
of ABM for the otherwise breastfed baby - I believe that a priority shift
CAN occur.

The research for the increaased allergies from introduction of ABM and then
its elimination is from Scandinavian (oh spelling is gone ...I just finished
chemistry mid term) medical literature. And for a wonderful tour of the
breastfed newborns gut see Scientific American DEC 1995, an article by  (who
else?) Dr. Jack Newman.

I have five children. I did not know with my first that using ABM
occasionally (maybe she had a total of 3 or 4 bottle in her entire first six
months of life and NONE there after) would change her from being considered
EXCLUSIVELY breastfed to PARTIALLY breastfed (at least by some - many?-
researchers criteria). Then when I was confronted with reading research on
the topic I read a journal article titled "Breastfeeding Second Thoughts"
I still have copies of this article (on OLD LLL leatterhead). But the
research was at that time enough for me to make SURE that the next four
babies received nothing but breast, from birth through the middle of the
first year of life. I am indebted to LLL (for that anyway!)

When I read through the ten steps of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative,
I always am reminded of the importance of protecting the newborn's gut wall.
I can just *see* those little villi. Education can make this topic come
alive and fit in the real world for moms and OB unit staff. I still think a
video explaing all of this would make the topic much more understandable.
Anyone out there willing to help me on this. I've a few persons so far who
have said they would help. Actually this video is the REASON for an old mom
like me to finish my biology degree. But, team work wil make a much better
video that one persons thoughts.



Paula Bermingham, IBCLC
WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator, Lake County CA.
Travis Tabares