It isn't up to the mother to initiate breastfeeding in the first hour!    For crying out loud she just gave birth!  It's up to her CAREGIVERS to facilitate that first breastfeed, by stepping out of the way and allowing mothers and babies some skin to skin time.   And relax, women and babies who don't have opportunity to initiate bf in the first hour can still go on to become champion breastfeeders!  But for reasons we don't fully understand, early initiation is linked with longer more sucessful bf experiences more of the time, so it's just good practice, you see.
As for the caregivers of yesterday, should they be wracked with guilt for not facilitating early bf? No, they were working within certain sets of expectations, appropriate for what they knew then... but they might have a few regrets...
Likewise, bf works better when mothers and babies sleep near each other, pretty obvious I would say.  So, knowing that, and again it is on the caregivers and the experts to disseminate this info, mothers choose the sleeping arrangements that work best for their families.  
I simply do not traffic in guilt. I encourage mothers to get the info then follow their instincts. We are the best mothers we can be at the time.  We makeour choices in the context of our own particular circumstances and we also make them in the context of the best information available at the time, both are always in flux aren't they? hopefully, getting better...

New info doesn't invalidate us, only more fully informs the choices of the next generation of mothers and their caregivers...

my two cents!

Kristen Panzer, IBCLC





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