In a message dated 1/25/2004 11:18:12 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
many of these babies ARE sleepy
Dear Friends:
    Lynn's post makes me wonder: what are the actual percentages of
extraordinarily sleepy babies for medicated versus natural births? 'Many' is a
subjective word, which could mean "all of the babies with breastfeeding problems that
I have worked with lately" or "more than half of the babies born at our birth
center" or something else.
        I am thinking of Michel Odent's research on normal infants (which
were all home births); he found that 30% of them did not lose any weight after
birth; and another significant percentage of babies gained weight from the very
beginning. So much for that notion that it is normal for babies to lose weight
after birth
    Birth is a necessary stress for a baby; the baby and the mother are made
with built-in coping strategies. However, a baby in constant skin-to-skin
contact with its mother for the first few days after birth is in a different
environment than the majority of babies born in hospitals.
    Of course there will be breastfeeding problems with babies born naturally
and normally; but the incidence is less. Righard found babies with incorrect
suckling in the delivery self-attachment group, but the preponderance of
incorrect suckling was in the separated group. Mathieson et al.  and also
Ransjo-Arvidson et al. in Sweden reported (March 2001 Birth) on the difference in
newborn behaviors, crying, and temperature regulation between babies born without
medicated labors versus babies born with medicated labors. There were
significant differences between the groups, with the best outcomes in the babies
without medication in labor. No babies were identified as lethargic.
   Any anthropologists out there with any insights on this?
    It might be common for babies to be lethargic, but it just doesn't make
any evolutionary sense for them to be so lethargic that they don't feed well.
    warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE, CIMI
Maternal-Child Adjunct Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Editor, Journal of Human Lactation
Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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