In a message dated 7/21/1 1:04:24 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< Those of us that have worked with hundreds or thousands of newborns know
that
some come out seemingly starving and "having eaten all along" and some appear
uninterested for DAYS >>

All of the discussion I have seen so far assumes that babies born in
hospitals can in some way be reflective of the biological norm, but they
cannot. Having given birth at home and worked extensively with midwives and
their clients, I can assure you they are different babies. I am not saying a
baby born at home never has difficulty nursing or that every baby born in
hospital will.  I am saying that midwives don't tend to wait and see, b/c
they know this is not normal. Babies born at home usually don't even lose
weight, so they must surely be eating well from the beginning. In general,
babies born normally nurse normally. IMO, we need to look at them to answer
these supplement questions. I do believe that babies who don't nurse can't
nurse.
    Someone wrote (sorry, I deleted the post) that she has seen people from
the community move into the hospital setting and be very surprised at the
nature of the difficulties faced there. Well, I did just that 8 years ago and
I was more surprised than I expected to be with the nature of the
difficulties caused there.
    Personally, I do tend to take a more "wait and see" approach with babies
born in hospital, but that is b/c I know they are not behaving normally. They
have probably been drugged, filled with fluid (as have their mothers), had
their heads smashed against an unripened cervix (pit), or gotten stuck after
someone thought rupturing membranes was a good idea, or been subjected to the
as-yet-unknown risks of cytotec, or been sucked or dragged or cut out of
their mothers, and then "cleaned" and weighed and suctioned and covered up
before being " presented" to their mothers. I am amazed when these kids do
nurse, not when they don't.
    At the LLLI conference, the very best workshop I attended was by Dr. Nils
Bergman on Kangaroo Care. He said that breastfeeding defines us as mammals.
All manmmalian infants nurse--they are not nursed by their mothers. It is an
action on the part of the infant, not the mother. The infant is uniquely
designed and adapted to get its needs met in the environment of the mother's
womb--the baby takes the action. It is also uniquely designed to get its
needs met in the external environment for which it is adapted. That
environment is the body of the mother. So, all we really need to do is
provide the environment to a baby whose adaptive functions are intact. These
babies will then do what they are hard-wired to do to grow and flourish.
Again, this is true for all mammals.
    The problem is that birth in the US drastically interferes with this
hard-wiring. And then our cultural views about separation further degrade the
programming. Bergman reminds us that infants are in survival mode when
removed from the environment they expect (the mother's body--not a plastic
bin). When returned to the environment (the mother's body), they are able to
return to nourishment mode . So, in taking a wait-and-see approach, 100%
contact with the mother is essential. This is what I refer to as the
opportunist mode--mom needs to provide every opportunity for the baby to "get
it".
    I try very hard to avoid adding insult to injury--I try to avoid AIM. But
nature didn't adapt these babies for the insult of birth in the US, so
sometimes we just can't seem to trust they will "get it" fast enough for
their own sake. I guess what I am saying is that all of this debate about
where to draw the line makes perfect sense b/c we have no idea in each
individual baby how much the hard-wiring has been disrupted and what will be
required to restore it. Each baby is like a little experiment into the brave
new world of medicalized birth. .
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA (who is just a "little" testy after reading Ina
May Gaskin's article on Cytotec in Mothering).

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