Laurie I just "shared the bill" with Kittie Frantz (NNP) at LLL-Wisconsin (Yo, Milwaukee!) and she not only practices this, she teaches it to the MD residents who go through her training (as they all must ....) at her hospital in California. I learned a LOT (as I do at every conference, I swear). She describes Baby's first, deep post-delivery, post-first-s2s-BF nap as "transition sleep." The Baby's vital signs are stabilizing, while his little body figures out how to re-route allthat blood and oxygen from the umbilical cord to the lungs instead. I loved her descriptive: "It is like landing an airplane, but then putting the engines into reverse." The residents at her hospital, who do the examinations and evaluations on the newborns, are NOT allowed to do them while they are in transition sleep. Whoo Hoo! The best place for the transition sleep is s2s, because it helps to regulate the heart beat, temperature and breathing, and the baby's cortisol/stress levels stay LOW. Of course, that laid back position helps facilitate feeds when the baby does start to stir .. and critically, the baby is NOT swaddled, meaning his arms and hands are free to "cycle" which is an important part of the waking mechanism. I struggle with this at my hospital: nurses and docs getting all fretty if the baby -- who did a bang-up job of BF in the delivery room -- is now snuggled happily on Mom's chest, and is in a long nap at about Hour 11 or 12 of life. They want to intervene, and get pumps going, and they freak the poor mom out ("WHAT?!?! NO BF yet ?!?!? Lactation, STAT!"). Sigh. -- Liz Brooks JD IBCLC FILCA Wyndmoor, PA, USA *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome