Recently, she's been focusing on the Lamaze Healthy Birth Practices, and this past week the last healthy birth "Keep mom and baby together - it's best for mom, baby and breastfeeding" is the topic.
This is a topic near and dear to my heart. I have in the past, blogged many times about breastfeeding issues, and postpartum issues .......and they are connected very intricately to this particular healthy birth practice.
Here in BC, Canada, we tend to (overall) "get" the importance of normal birth, non medicated births, avoiding unnecessary interventions etc .......but as a society/medical community etc, we do NOT get this one. Yes, we say "breastfeeding is best, and mom and baby should breastfeed as soon as possible after birth", but our practices don't always support this.
13 12/ years ago when my oldest was born, I did not get this. There were some minor issues surrounding her birth - I needed an episiotomy to get her out faster because her "heartrate was dropping". She was born, the cord was cut, and she was whisked away to be "helped". I seem to recall her crying fairly quickly - but did they give her to me? No. They cleaned her up, weighed and measured her, gave her the vitamin K shot, the eye ointment and whatever else, I was stitched up and approximately 45 minutes later, I got my burrito-baby. Seriously, she was diapered and all wrapped up in towels!! I did not know better, and left her like that while "bonding" with her. Did I have breastfeeding issues? Absolutely. Are the two connected? Absolutely. My next three babies were given to me sooner than she was. And breastfeeding went better with each of them.
Fast forward to 6 years ago when I had my last baby --- a home water birth. I didn't wait 45 minutes to receive my son. I birthed him and brought him up to my chest, for skin to skin snuggling myself. And there he stayed while we marveled at the wonder of birth, and his appearance! I only let him go while I got out of the pool to birth my placenta. As soon as I was settled on the couch, he was back in my arms, skin to skin - starting to nurse. He breastfed the best, and the longest of all four of my children. Are these two things connected? Absolutely.
Like I've said before, we need to think of the mother and baby as ONE unit - a dyad. Keep them together! Encourage skin to skin for at least the first hour, and then as much as possible afterwards during feeding times. Have a "babymoon" when you get home from the hospital - go to bed with your baby for 24 hours and spend all that time skin to skin while others "wait" on you. Even if a baby needs some assistance breathing, why not help them on the mother's chest? Of course, if the baby needs true resuscitation, that's a whole other ball game. Clean the baby? Sure! - on mom's chest. Give baby vitamin K? eye ointment? Sure! - on mom's chest. Obviously we can't weigh or measure baby on mom's chest .......but the rest of the newborn exam should be done right beside mom so she can reach out and touch her baby.
In a perfect maternity world, I would even want to see skin to skin in the OR after a cesarean birth. Why not? It could be done with a little ingenuity. Allow that for 15-20 minutes! Then, when they're in recovery TOGETHER, they should be skin to skin - not towel to hospital gown. We need to take this healthy birth practice seriously.
The benefits to baby (and mom!) are indescribable, and soooo important -- let's not underestimate what skin to skin can do.
- Our Healthy Birth Your Way video
With all my kids, the nurse right away laid the baby on my chest. The nurse in all the cases reminded me to try get them to latch as a good start to breastfeeding. I think I had that in my birth plans too. What always amazed me with my three daughters is that when their little tiny naked baby bodies were laid on my bare chest or tummy, they all tried to squirm themselves little by little up to their food source. They instinctly knew where to head! It was so cute. Although my firstborn son had no interest thanks to ingested meconium and being very overdue. He was so congested with mucous! Poor kid!
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