At first I was going to say that my experience is entirely anecdotal and
unscientific, but the more I think about it, its something of a case control
study:
I was nursing my then 22 month old daughter when my son was born (at a birth
center, attended by my sister who is a CNM and another CNM - very hippy
crunchy non-intervention indeed) and my son nurse for the first time
immediately after he came out. (granted, he didn't crawl up there, but he
never went anywhere else but my belly and no one disturbed his progress by
cleaning or anything else) His latch looked *pretty* good. (in fact he is
now 23 months old and his whole life his latch has never *looked* textbook
perfect but it is painfree and he's gigantic) Interestingly, it was painful
when he first latched on, I took him off, relatched him, and it was still
painful. Not 'curl your toes' painful, but not blissfully pain free. His
sister crawled up onto the bed, after making her all important announcement
that she was now a big sister to everyone she could find, and promptly
latched on to the other side.
After I got over feeling like the Mama Pig in Charlotte's Web I realized
that her latch didn't hurt (finally, as it was relatively unpleasant
throughout the pregnancy - it just felt like her latch was slightly too
shallow, even though I knew it wasn't) but his did. Therefore, I have a
perfect control subject in my daughter because she validates that it was not
just hypersensitivity from having just given birth that prompted the pain.
Granted, its entirely possible that his latch wasn't great, but I never had
any blistering or trauma, and the pain went away at about 24 hours.
I am unaware of any studies about latch difficulties related to
self-latching opportunities, it would be incredibly difficult to study, but
fascinating nonetheless.
Katherine Shealy, MPH, CBE
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 18:22:48 +0400
From: Pascoes in Dubai <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: self-attaching
It would be interesting to see if the "normal" early nipple pain would still
occur in a sample of babies given the opportunity to self-attach immediately
after delivery?
Also, this reflex to climb up the abdomen and self attach-is this a short
lived post delivery reflex or can babies continue to do this for several
days/indefinitely after the birth?
If so, it would be interesting to study a sample of babies who self-attach
every feed for the first week and examine for signs of nipple pain.
Meg Kingsley IBCLC
Dubai UAE
Community worker-not much experience with neonates
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