This discussion is getting more interesting all the time.  Those of you with
experience from other mammals know how intent the mother is on getting the
newborn to suckle, and how important it is to the survival of the young that
it happen within a short time after birth.  Sheep lick the entire lamb
vigorously until the lamb starts rooting and suckles.  I have heard that a
lamb who fails to respond will be abandoned; in sheep society such a lamb
doesn't have the right to live.  I haven't had the opportunity to observe
many other newborn mammals but I have been told that foals must get
colostrum within 30-60 minutes of birth or they may die.
We still accept and indeed cherish our babies even when they refuse to latch
or sleep overmuch the first few days.  But we may not have the skill to
salvage the breastfeeding relationship with them.
We have lost a lot of our instinctive behavior as we have become more and
more culturally defined.  Also, not all cultures foster nurturing, nor all
environments.  A mother from a nurturing culture may find herself in
discordant surroundings, and not be able to express her cultural heritage.
The good part is, that mothers from non-nurturing backgrounds are fully able
to breastfeed (and nurture in other ways) if given surprisingly little
practical support to do so.  And we now know much more about how to support
breastfeeding practically, if we would only apply the knowledge!

I see how the culture I live in hinders successful breastfeeding in
different ways now, as compared to 35 years ago.  Then, mothers were largely
unmedicated in labor so they and their babies were raring to go right away.
We put the mothers in one area and the babies in another and didn't give
them a chance to manifest their abilities.  Now, we know the importance of
skin-to-skin and keeping them together, but we use such a collection of
pharmaceuticals in birth that they are unable to use the together-time
effectively to get started BFing.

Sigh.  Yes, some babies should be waked, and LOTS more mothers should be
learning the skill of manual expression, reverse pressure softening, and
responding to early cues from baby.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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