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Born to Breastfeed
Why Birth Matters to the Nursing Relationship By Teri Brown
breastfeeding experience," says Dr. Johnson. He even says that, "the quality of the birth has no effect on future breastfeeding success."
Other experts disagree. Angela Jacobi, registered nurse and lactation consultant at the University of Chicago Hospitals in Chicago, Ill., believes there is a strong connection between birth and breastfeeding success. "While there is no clinical data or research literature to back this up, any maternity nurse can tell you that, generally speaking, the more straightforward the birth, the easier the breastfeeding will be," she says.
This, of course, doesn't include other complications such as a premature, sick, tongue-tied baby or other physical barriers that may hinder breastfeeding, like inverted or flat nipples.
According to Jacobi, as soon as the birth is complicated by medications for things like pre-eclampsia, excess blood loss, infection or pain, or the labor becomes prolonged and such things as forceps or vacuum extractions occur, the mom becomes more tired and depleted, as does the baby. "All of these things have an impact on initial breastfeeding contact: when it occurs, how often and how well or poorly it goes," she says.
Though Jacobi is quick to point out that it has never been conclusively proven in any large-scale study that drugs given during birth have an impact on breastfeeding, she believes it is because the measures of "impact" on the baby used in these studies were gross measures like Apgar scores.
"It is obvious to anyone who works closely with newborn babies on a daily basis that some babies are more sleepy than others after birth, and subtle changes like sleepiness are very difficult to measure in a quantitative way," says Jacobi.
As most lactation consultants know, an unresponsive, overly tired baby is less likely to latch on correctly at the initial contact or even be willing to try. The impact this has on nursing success over the long term is not known.
