"It may not be perfect, but compared to the experience of many Western 
woman, with high intervention births and baby whisked off to the 
Nursery, it's a huge improvement.  It shows clearly what can happen, 
and, again, if there are any 'better' ones showing new born latch, I'd 
certainly like the URL."

Well, there's the challenge to us, then: to provide *on-line* footage of a mother and baby *interacting normally* after a birth, and baby finding the breast while interacting with the mother.  I'm so scared that we're going to swing totally in this new "Mama must rein in all her instincts until the baby Does His Thing" approach, which continues to put others in the driver's seat.  Nothing in the WHO video says that this is less than ideal, or that this is purely a demonstration of baby abilities and is not a recommended approach for all mothers and babies - nothing.  The implication is that we should be doing what's shows... and if someone tried that we me and my baby, I'd smack 'em.  

A quick search turned up this one, "baby breastfeeding witin (sic) minutes of birth," 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8410164624210416864&q=newborn+breastfeed&total=100&start=20&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=6

which I think I prefer, despite all *its* many defects (including background noise, which makes even the baby flinch), because it's more real: mom actually has baby in her arms, where a baby certainly expects to find itself.  The baby isn't latching, you hear someone say something like "Maybe if the baby is lower down," they haul the baby down a bit, I hear something about "nose opposite nipple," and poof, the baby is nursing.  Certainly not ideal either, but it does show the mother interacting at least a little with her baby, a suggestion about better placement of the baby, and the baby accomplishing the latch in a flash as a result of the adjustment (you can hear the voice saying, "And the baby did it himself - you don't have to push push push."  It isn't *much* of a dance between mother and baby, but it's definitely a dance.  There's learning taking place, and the mother shows pleasure in the result.  

And until we have more on-line videos to choose from, we can all put the good purchasable ones on our gift wish lists :-).  

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY  USA
www.wiessinger.baka.com

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