>
> Linda Pohl wrote:
> >I remind them that the BABY is in approximately the same position
> >regardless of the MOTHER's position.
        > I'm not sure what you mean by this. A baby in a football hold is
        > reclining -- between sitting up and lying down -- and a baby in a cradle
        > or transitional hold is lying on his side, not on his back. A baby being
        > nursed in a side-lying position can be in one of several positions,
        > propped up in different ways on pillows, for instance. I would say that
        > a comfortably positioned baby is seldom flat on his back (although this
        > sometimes works for a really bad plugged duct, in a variation of the
        > breast-in-the-sink position).

Joanne,
I guess that I should have clarified.  The baby is primarily in the
horizontal plane in most positions.  When mom is using a cradle or cross
cradle, baby is usually on he side, but horizontal.  In the football hold,
unless mom is lifting her breast to the baby, to maintain the
nose-to-nipple, chin-leading position the baby is primarily in the
horizontal plane although the head might be raised slightly.  And when mom
is lying down, the baby is again in the horizontal plane.  In most cases,
with proper latch the nipple is in the back of the throat where the hard and
soft palate meet, dropping the milk down the back of the throat immediately
after the baby applies the positive pressure required to extract the milk.

When parents bottle-feed, my understanding is that the baby needs to be
upright because of the negative pressure (vacuum) required to extract the
milk from a bottle would be more likely to pull milk into the Eustachian
tube if gravity did not drop the milk down the throat first.  If the baby is
on his back while bottle-feeding the milk would have the opportunity to pool
in the area of the opening of the Eustachian tube and be pulled into the
ears when the baby applies the negative pressure.  (If you close your lips
and suck, you can feel the pressure on your ears.)

Linda Pohl, IBCLC
Phoenix & Mesa AZ

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