Dear Listmates, It's been a lively and informative discussion of the various scenarios we are seeing in the hospital regarding the difficulties some women are having initiating breastfeeding within the context of a "routine medicalized birth." I know it has been mentioned in the past, but perhaps some of the newer listmates might not be familiar with Mary Kroeger and Linda Smith's book "Impact of Birthing Practices on Breastfeeding." It is well worth reading. One of the things we can do is be extremely proactive in our prenatal teaching of immediate and undisturbed Skin to Skin contact after birth, mother and baby condition permitting. No going to the warming table, no passing of the baby around to family or friends, not even the partner, no routine procedures until the baby has had several attempts, hopefully successes, at latching. I recommend delaying the baby bath for 24 hours and then have it done right in the room, so there is no mother baby separation.. The Vit K and the eye prophylaxis can be done right in the room after a few hours. I have seen the mothers who have done this get breastfeeding off to a great start, even with many birth interventions. One was my own dear daughter who had just about every known obstetric intervention, except a c-section. I am encouraging women to write a "newborn post-birth plan" to cover this departure from the regular newborn care. Respiratory therapy attends all births here and when it is explained to them by the staff nurse that this is what the mom plans on doing, the RT has had no issues. Of course the mom and partner have to be willing to embrace this concept of care and it will probably be difficult for them when the family and friends all want their share of the newborn, so we talk about the various ways they can overcome that hurdle. It is so helpful to get the staff nurses behind you and I think that most of them are willing to try to improve the post birth maternity care practices which can lead to more breastfeeding successes. Mary-Jane Sackett, RN, IBCLC, RLC, CCE Registered Lactation Consultant, Certified Childbirth Educator, MCH Visiting Nurse Pittsfield, in the Beautiful Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html