Gonneke says:

<< Nor was their anything about common birthing rituals in this ''developed
place
 like the US'' that harms children so badly that they are not or very poorly
able
 to perform their natural skills of survival
 No, we don't want the mothers to feel guilty that they didn't manage it or
that
 their babies and bodies seemed to not being able to do as they should. We
 actually should want some others to feel very guilty about malpraticing:
 dragging babies out of the womb before nature decides it's time, hurrying
 delivery up, because they prefer to work office hours, medicating normal
births
 because the nature of birthing pain is totally misunderstood, performing all
 kinds of harming medical rituals, ... >>

The whole issue of birth impacting breastfeeding is one of my soapboxes --
having worked in MCH for <GASP> 28!! years now.  (Can it be?  Surely I'm not
more than 28 meself!!).  I've been in L&D; taught in a school of nursing; was
coordinator (head nurse) of an out of hospital alternative birthing center --
among other positions in MCH.  I wonder if the problem is that those that
work in L&D -- or work w/ pregnant moms (i.e. OBs), are frequently (not all
of them, of course) quite tunnel visioned in their view of labor and birth.
Essentially, it is a question of "get a healthy baby out of this (hostile)
uterus as quickly as possible with as little fuss and mess as possible
(preferably during the daylight hours), and the heck with what transpires
once I've done MY job...."

If there weren't the separation between Obstetrics and Pediatrics....if women
were attended by midwives who also had a vested interest in what came AFTER
the birth -- beyond healing lacerations or episiotomies, fevers, and/or
postpartum hemorrhage -- then perhaps there would be a heavier emphasis on
making sure that the labor and birth was "managed" so that breastfeeding
would be a success.

Giving drugs and epidurals "benefits" everyone except the baby (and the
mother after the birth is over).  The nurses in L&D benefit -- they can do
some other work, or care for two or three mothers at the same time.  The
mother and father benefit -- no pain; they can watch TV or play cards and
have a "painless" birth.  The docs benefit -- no screaming in the birthing
unit, and they don't have to do much of anything except increase the Pitocin
so they make their dinner party.  (Please realize I'm using hyperbole for
effect here -- not all docs or nurses are like this.  But I've been there,
done that....). The anesthesiologist benefits -- he gets paid.  And so birth
is viewed as something nasty that must be endured to get the end result --
the baby.  And breastfeeding is viewed as something that doesn't begin
(really) until the milk comes in 3 days down the road -- and what does labor
management have to do with it anyway?

I've talked about this before (probably ad nauseum) -- but it really is a
major problem.  And I go over and over again in my mind the absolute DEARTH
of problems that we experienced w/ breastfeeding in the Family Birthing
Center where birth was "normal" and moms and dads were in control.  And how
breastfeeding proceeded normally as well, and problems were really unusual.

If I were working in the birthing center, I wouldn't be needed as a lactation
consultant.  An educator, maybe.  But certainly not as an IBCLC -- not like I
am here, working in a hospital setting for a pediatric group.

Sigh.  It's so dreadfully complex, and we have so far to go....

I've been thinking about Barbara's post on pacifiers and thumbs and how some
babies seem to have a physiologic need to suck.  And I wonder if the thumb
suckers are born and pacifier-users are made.  Pacifiers are
parent-controlled in the beginning; not only do babies get hooked on them,
adults do also.  If there is a physiologic need for sucking because of the
immature respiratory centers, then babies would automatically use their
thumbs, I would think.  But so terrified are we of thumb-suckers (because
once again it leaves the baby in control -- heaven & Ezzo forbid), that we
resort to something man-made that we, as adults, can control.

Sigh again.

Jan B.

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