glad it made sense cos DAMN it's hard to get them thoughts in order sometimes! i knew what i was trying to say, but the words just wouldn't come!
i think it's something to do with the baby experiencing a lot during the birth as well, and immediately after that it may not be ready to actually feed yet - needs time to find that relaxed mind set where feeding is going to be most effective...
I guess that can still be achieved while cuddling your bub. I guess holding them close on your chest rather then in a cradled position would give you those first cuddles & give the baby time to find himself also.
I wish I'd had a lot more skin contact with ds when he was born... I was wearing a t-shirt when they put him on my chest, straight after birth, and next thing I knew they took him to weigh him and handed him back to me all snugged up in blankets like a little burrito We had attachment problems and he gets excema, sometimes I wonder if both those oculd have been avoided with a little skin on skin...
I'd be guessing this is a more evolutionary capability thing than 100% necessary. There would have been numerous times in our history when an exhausted mother giving birth would have not had the strength or assistance to pick up her baby, at which point the baby's instinct to get to the breast for the sake of its own survival would have been vital.
I guess I see it as something a baby is capable of doing, but like you FJ, don't see that it's necessary for it to occur to establish a good bfing relationship. More a survival instinct than anything else.
Great explanation BG It makes sense if you put yourself in the baby's position... you've just been through an extremely physically demanding experience and then before you you know it you're having a meal shoved in your face. It would be like completing a marathon and then being told to sit down to a meal straight away. Ugh!
I didn't do breast crawls... I wish i had though... but I don't think I actually shoved my nipple into my babies faces too soon after birth... I vaguely recall at the end of my last labour I just held him near my breast and watched to see if he started "rooting" around in that my direction... he did, no problems.
ETA: Maybe there is something to be said about allowing hunger chemicals to register in the baby's brain... it could be the start of a life-time of actually learning to listen to your bodys hunger signals rather than just eating because it's "time" or due to another's prompting (eg a tv advert for a burger). Maybe a whole range of eating disorders could be improved if people learned to listen to what their bodies require and maybe it does start with a good BF relationship... *just musing*
Last edited by Bathsheba; January 6th, 2009 at 10:28 AM.
i think as long as bub is given the opportunity to find the breast on it's own, whether they are laying on your chest or being cradled, it would be much the same. i've read of hospital policies being "having the baby on the breast within 30 mins" - to me this seems to be pushing something that the baby itself may not be ready for - and i wonder if forcing it would lead to BF problems (poor attachment etc) - i've only watched one clip about it, where the baby took almost an hour on mum's chest to find the breast, and then attached beautifully. i wonder if this might start mumma feeling negative about BF if baby doesn't attach properly within the pre-designated time frame...
i think my aim (and i'm still a while off, so i'm only "thinking") is to not let time be a huge constraint - i'm not sure if we'll do full breast crawl or something similar to what you had with your last birth Bath and cradle baby skin to skin until IT is ready to seek out the breast...
my DD was born looking for the breast!! so funny when they held her up to put her on my chest and there she was rooting around for it! LOL!
what we did was have her lie on my chest for skin to skin (somewhere during transition i ripped all my clothes off...dont remember doing it but there you go!) and she lay there in a bit of perplexed shock, i seriously think she was saying 'WTF just happened ppl??!!'. after awhile i noticed that she started moving her head like i had seen in the b/f video shown at the b/f class and so we sat up and i gently showed her the breast to get a smell of it and she clamped straight on. DH took a pic cause it was amazing how she knew what to do (i had very little idea LOL!).
so although we didnt do a breast crawl i would like to think that she found her own way there and there was certainly no rush to get there. ITH.
FJ - with Izzy I had the whole cram babies face into the boob experience- not too calm or nice really, but with James I wanted to have it very much baby led. I didn't do the whole breastcrawl thing because I wanted skin to skin cuddles and it just didn't work out that way but I was lying on my side - tricky one hour after a c/s! and we snuggled for ages and he just sort of licked and sniffed his way around for about 30 mins before latching on with a tiny bit of midwife assistance. It was so beautiful and was much more "natural" than with Izzy. I love thinking back to that first feed and seeing him all nudie there on me. I tend to agree that the natural instinct is to cuddle and snuggle and the way we naturally hold babies tends to be in a breastfeeding position too.
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We had attachment problems and he gets excema, sometimes I wonder if both those oculd have been avoided with a little skin on skin...
so funny when they held her up to put her on my chest and there she was rooting around for it! LOL!
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