Righard and Alade's landmark work (see reference below) on delivery room
procedures and first breastfeed deals with this.  In short, babies who were
subjected to oropharyngeal suctioning took longer to take the breast. 
Possible bias is that babies who are suctioned are likely to be the ones who
aren't breathing convincingly at one minute and the delay in feeding
behavior could be a result of whatever made them not breathe so well, like
analgesia given to mother in labor.

It is a classic paper.  Subsequent research has not given us reason to doubt
the validity of their findings.

Caveat: if the choice is between Delee suctioning and suctioning with the
aid of a laryngoscope, go for the Delee.  But evidence-based practice
supports suctioning babies who are in trouble and leaving the others
undisturbed.  One could safely follow a policy of watching and waiting to
see whether suctioning was needed after cesarean.
Righard L and Alade MO. 1990 Effect of delivery room routines on success of
the first breast-feed (sic). Lancet 336:1105-1107 

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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