I found this video and had to share. It shows a newly born infant crawling on her mother’s chest, all on her own, to initiate breastfeeding. This is probably what would happen with most infants at birth if it were only allowed. Unfortunately the norm in hospitals in the U.S. is to whisk away the infant shortly after delivery, even when there is no medical reason to, separating it from its mother and coming between crucial mama-baby learning and bonding. This leads to unnecessary breastfeeding challenges, I’m sorry to say. It’s always good to see evidence of people making an effort to change that foolish practice, even if it’s not in my own country.

The only reservation I have about this video is that this poor woman who has just given birth is surrounded by a bunch of people (a lot of them men) in a brightly lit room. I think it’s a bit disconcerting, but she doesn’t seem to mind too much, and they seem to be protective of her and her baby while allowing the two to get to know each other without intervening, so I’m willing to let it pass. Other than that, I think it’s wonderful that she and her baby were allowed what every mother and child should be allowed: to bond in peace shortly after birth.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Videos, Lactation, Breastfeeding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.