Brace yourselves: I feel a soapbox coming. I am very ambivalent
on the issue, since I feel very strongly about the medicalization
of birth and deplore it when a hospital feels that it "owns" the
baby. ON THE OTHER HAND, as an LC, I agree with everyone on the
critical importance of establishing bfing and bonding in the
first hours and days. There is no question on that. I think that
we have to work on a golden mean, so moms can both feel enough
"at home" so that they can relax and start producing milk, AND
get in enough nursing to start producing milk. I try to talk to
the dads to arouse their instincts to "protect" mate and infant
from visitors, but I'm not always successful with the population
I work with. It's the moms who have to be convinced that the new
baby is more important than the well-wishers, and I often find
it a lost cause, along with the rest of you. Ah, the tightrope
is slippery! Judy Knopf