Recently, I attended a birth of a baby who was born a month early. She had good muscle tone and a strong cry. The extra staff members that came to examine her agreed that she was healthy. So when the mother was finished with the placenta, I suggested that the time was right for breastfeeding. We talked about proper alignment and tried several positions. The mother squeezed some colostrum from her nipple and let the baby taste it. We waited for the baby to open her mouth wide enough, mother poised with areola ready. The baby latched on - hooray! - then let go. Ok, let's try that again.....And again....the baby was sucking one time and releasing her latch.
We stimulated the reflex point in the roof of her mouth as a reminder that it's time to suckle. Once she got the hang of it, I took my finger away. The mother was ready to get the baby latched on. This time she stayed. I felt triumphant, watching this little creature nurse and seeing her mother's worries slip away.
Within minutes - like 5 - the nurse came and insisted that she take the baby upstairs to the nursery. She said, "Well, it's been an hour, so I need to take your baby. They're going to be looking for your baby upstairs." The mother, who was exhausted and probably didn't realize how long the baby had actually nursed or how long it takes to get your baby back from the nursery, pulled the baby off of the breast and handed her right over to the nurse.
There is nothing happening in the nursery that is more important than giving each baby sufficient time to breastfeed, even if a nurse is expecting a new patient. What matters most is whether or not the baby was given as much time as she needed for breastfeeding. Baths, eye ointment, injections, measurements; these are not things that need to happen immediately following birth. Breastfeeding is known to be most successful when it begins within the first hour after birth. If the first hour is taken with procedures, then mother and baby need more time.
Non-emergency newborn care is fairly simple: When the baby is born, make sure he is warm and dry and breathing. Then feed him. Everything else can wait!
