You are right Jessica, this is very disturbing.
What happened 1000 years ago?  No  epidural, home births surrounded by
family members, duolas, and familiar faces.  Babies were never left to cry
to exhaustion, they were with their mothers all the time.
There are a certain number of babies who may not have latched 1000 years
ago.  Some died.  Babies do die.  It is an unfortunate fact, but some die.
I am sure that back then, non-latchers died, unless they were fed by some
other utensils.
One comforting point: most of these babies latch in the end.
This week in our clinic in Udim, I had a few moms in the "practice room."
After their visit with the LC, they sit in a large room with other moms who
are doing " fine-tuning" working on positioning and latch skills.  There was
one mom whose baby did not latch for the first 2 1/2 weeks, then only took
one breast, and now at age one month is fully breastfeeding from both sides.
This mom came every week to practice latch ( we use mainly the Chloe Fisher
latch) as do many moms.  There was a new mom with a non-latching baby age 6
days.  She was learning the art of pumping and bottle feeding in the
meantime.
It was beautiful to watch the dynamics of these two moms.....the mom with
the baby who was now fully breastfeeding telling the new mom how only 3
weeks ago her baby would scream if even held in breastfeeding position, and
now was peacefully breastfeeding.  Nothing I could have said to the new mom
could have encouraged her more than seeing this mom and hearing her story.
Never underestimate the importance of moms helping other moms!!
Esther Grunis, IBCLC
Lis Maternity Hospital
Breastfeeding Medical Center
Udim
Israel

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