Interesting post.  I have been wondering the same thing myself.  I don’t
have any answers but I do have a few thoughts.  First, if babies have fluid
in their stomachs for almost 9 months then why would it be irritating after
birth?  Why would it not just go through their digestive system like any
other fluid?  Like Ann said, it makes no sense that this fluid would need
to come out through the mouth to make a baby feel better.

I have always heard that c/s babies, especially planned c/s, and babies
from a fast delivery are more spitty because they did not get the fluid
squeezed out of them.  What I see these babies do I would classify as
vomiting.  They are not just dribbling fluid out of their mouth like a baby
does after a good meal.  I always associate vomiting with an infection or
stress.  Do other mammals gag and vomit after they are born?  What about
c/s animals?  Animal moms give a lot of tactile stim to their babies after
birth with all of the licking, which, according to Montague (book listed
below) stimulates the gastrointestinal and respiratory organs to function
properly.  He also states that the human fetus, with its larger head and
birth presentation may get a lot of this tactile stim on its head, face,
nose, and lips from the contracting uterus-which may correspond to the
licking seen in other mammals.

I have some thoughts about vomiting/gagging and stress.  I just finished
reading “Touch: The significance of the Human Skin” by Ashley Montague.  He
writes a lot about the tactile stimulation a baby receives while being
squeezed by a contracting uterus and the trip through the birth canal.
Montague states that the function of the birth process is to prepare the
fetus for postnatal functioning.  He also states, “…When the skin has not
been adequately stimulated (through contractions and squeezing through
birth canal) the peripheral and autonomic nervous systems are also
inadequately stimulated (which affects the postnatal function of principal
organ systems).”   He writes a lot about skin stim. and function of the
gastrointestinal and respiratory organs.  He mentions nothing about the
importance of squeezing to push out fluid.

I wonder if the vomiting and gagging has more to due with the lack of skin
stim, which would in turn cause stress on the organ systems.  Is it
possible that all babies are born with fluid in their stomachs, but only
the stressed babies vomit it up?  Would lots of skin to skin and massage
directly after birth keep these babies from vomiting?

I had a baby that was born by forceps after failed vacuum.  The labor was
long and mom pushed for 2 hours.  This baby had plenty of squeezing, but
yet she still vomited a fair amount of fluid several times, this all
happened during the times she was being handled. She is also what I would
consider a stressed baby due to birth trauma and, and as usual, limited
holding or skin to skin. Today, I was attempting to wake her from a calm
sleep.  I was very gentle, but as soon as she opened her eyes she started
to gag.  Nothing came up since she did not have any fluid left, probably.

I think what I am trying to say is maybe it is not the fluid itself that
causes baby to vomit.  Maybe the baby is gagging and vomiting due to stress
(from lack of sufficient skin stim.) and if there is fluid in their stomach
it will come up.  Maybe the way to solve the problem would be not to
suction the stomach but place baby skin to skin with mom for as long a
period as possible to reduce stress.  I don’t think vomiting is a normal
biological function like voiding or stooling, ect.  I wouldn’t think nature
intended for babies to vomit fluid in their stomachs as a preferred way to
eliminate it. The gastrointestinal tract is made for moving food and fluid
in one direction-fluid going the other direction should be considered
abnormal.  Although we always tell parents that vomiting/gagging in the
first day is perfectly normal and good for baby to get all that nasty fluid
out!!

Anyway, these are my thoughts.  I may be off base, but it is fun to think
outside the box sometimes!

Christine Lichte, IBCLC, LLL Leader

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html