I agree with Jennifer, that framing the question this way implies an
acceptance for having separated mother and baby in the first place.  I've
just read the last 36 hours of posts in the archives so can't recall who
said what, but someone mentioned the *risk of not breastfeeding* in the
first hour, which includes higher chance of dying in the first week of life,
a very rare complication in most of our settings, and breastfeeding failure,
unfortunately quite a common complication for most of us.

Recently I had the good fortune to observe a mother and baby after a quite
undisturbed birth. It was at home, and baby was born at about the same
instant I arrived.  Since I could see that the mother and baby were in fine
condition, I didn't do anything after saying 'congratulations' to the
mother.  She picked him up, greeted him, snuggled up to father with babe in
arms and after a few moments found a position in which to lie comfortably in
third stage, which proceeded physiologically.  From my vantage point I could
see her breasts firming up, the areola rising from the surrounding skin and
the nipple emerging from that like a sea marker on a skerry, easy for baby
to catch sight of and move toward.  It was such a treat not to have lift a
finger, or say anything in the way of guidance, to remind those present of
the task at hand.  In hospital there is often a lot of talk about why we
aren't weighing the baby, or 'have you given the Vitamin K yet?' or 'do you
want relief because it's change of shift, or would you prefer to do the
suturing yourself' or even 'shall I change the pad under you' or put a
diaper on baby, or WHATEVER, it is always a disruption.  

I don't know and I don't care exactly when the baby attached himself the
first time, but I think it was about half an hour after he was born.  I also
don't know how many times he attached himself, with completely spontaneous
and un-selfconscious help from his mother, in the first two or three hours,
but it was a good three hours before anyone else was permitted to hold the
baby, though both father and big brother had cuddled him abundantly where he
was lying. After he was weighed and measured, during which he protested
loudly, he settled back with mother for another feed, after which both he
and his mother fell asleep together while the morning sun shone into the
room.  Those of you who work in hospitals, when was the last time you saw an
unmedicated mother just fall into sleep with her baby at her breast 3 hours
post partum?  

This process really does work, and every time I see it like this I wonder
why we are so resistant to giving mothers and babies in institutions the
surroundings they need to simply BE THEMSELVES, lose track of everything
outside their birth bubble, and get started attaching and bonding.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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