In an earlier thread on this topic I stated that we don't view epidurals as an obstacle to BF.  After meeting a doula from S.California at the home birth conference in Amsterdam last week, I realize that epidural means something different here.
A birthing woman in a Norwegian hospital, which is where 99% of babies are born here, is unlikely to have an epidural sited before she is in established labor, usually with at least 5 cm cervical dilation.  The usual course is for the baby to be born within two or three hours of the first epidural dose and it is quite common for the woman to void urine spontaneously after walking to the toilet two hours later.  Needless to say, most women using epidurals are having their first babies as the anesthetist rarely arrives in time to help a multip.  We use a bolus dose system and seldom will anyone have as many as 3 doses.  The doula I met alerted me (I am still in shock) to the fact that where she practices, it is not unusual for women to have epidurals for 24 to 36 hours, and that they are considered to have been in labor for all that time.  Obviously the medication will have a different effect, not to mention what it must do to mothers and babies to have labor so artificially prolonged in the name of analgesia.  And not to even begin to think about what this does to the cost of health care, having all these healthy women occupying high-care beds for ten times as long as they should be, under specialist supervision.  All I can say is, come have your babies here, we do a bang-up job of intrapartum care and our BF stats speak for themselves!
This would be my, oh, 20 ml worth.  All colostrum, extra concentrated.
Rachel Myr [log in to unmask]
Kristiansand, Norway
and now I will try to keep quiet and finish my application for the exam

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