[blparent] What is a normal, term human infant supposed to do? (article for moms with babies)

Fri Feb 17 02:10:44 UTC 2012

Nice artical.
Kate
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jo Elizabeth Pinto" <jopinto at msn.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 8:02 PM
Subject: [blparent] What is a normal,term human infant supposed to do? 
(article for moms with babies)


>I ran across an interesting article for moms with babies.
>
>
> What is a normal, term human infant supposed to do?
>
>
> First of all, a human baby is supposed to be born vaginally.  Yes, I know 
> that doesn't always happen, but we're just going to talk ideal, normal for 
> now.  We are supposed to be born vaginally because we need good bacteria. 
> Human babies are sterile, without bacteria, at birth.  It's no accident 
> that we are born near the anus, an area that has lots of bacteria, most of 
> which are good and necessary for normal gut health and development of the 
> immune system.  And the bacteria that are there are mom's bacteria, 
> bacteria that she can provide antibodies against if the bacteria there 
> aren't nice.
>
> Then the baby is born and is supposed to go to mom.  Right to her chest. 
> The chest, right in between the breasts is the natural habitat of the 
> newborn baby. (Fun fact:  our cardiac output, how much blood we circulate 
> in a given minute, is distributed to places that are important.  Lots goes 
> to the kidney every minute, like 10% or so, and 20% goes to your brain. 
> In a new mom, 23% goes to her chest- more than her brain.  The body thinks 
> that place is important!)
>
> That chest area gives heat.  The baby has been using mom's body for 
> temperature regulation for ages.  Why would they stop?  With all that 
> blood flow, it's going to be warm.  The baby can use mom to get warm. 
> When I was in my residency, we would put a cold baby "under the warmer" 
> which meant a heater thingy next to mom.  Now, as I have matured, if a 
> baby is "under the warmer," the kid is under mom.  I wouldn't like that. 
> I like the kids on top of mom, snuggled.
>
> Now we have a brand new baby on the warmer.  That child is not hungry. 
> Bringing a hungry baby into the world is a bad plan.  And really, if they 
> were hungry, can you please explain to me why my kids sucked the life 
> force out of me in those last few weeks of pregnancy?  They better have 
> been getting food, or well, that would have been annoying and painful for 
> nothing.
>
> Every species has instinctual behaviors that allow the little ones to grow 
> up to be big ones and keep the species going.  Our kids are born into the 
> world needing protection.  Protection from disease and from predators. 
> Yes, predators.  Our kids don't know they've been born into a loving 
> family in the 21st century- for all they know it's the 2nd century and 
> they are in a cave surrounded by tigers.  Our instinctive behaviors as 
> baby humans need to help us stay protected.  Babies get both disease 
> protection and tiger protection from being on mom's chest.  Presumably, we 
> gave the baby some good bacteria when they arrived through the birth 
> canal.  That's the first step in disease protection.  The next step is 
> getting colostrum.
>
> A newborn baby on mom's chest will pick their head up, lick their hands, 
> maybe nuzzle mom, lick their hands and start to slide towards the breast. 
> The kids have a preference for contrasts between light and dark, and for 
> circles over other shapes.  Think about that...there's a dark circle not 
> too far away.
>
> Mom's sweat smells like amniotic fluid, and that smell is on the child's 
> hands (because there's been no bath yet!) and the baby uses that taste on 
> their hand to follow mom's smell.  The secretions coming from the glands 
> on the areola (that dark circle) smell familiar too and help the baby get 
> to the breast to get the colostrum which is going to feed the good 
> bacteria and keep them protected from infection.  The kids can attach by 
> themselves.  Watch for yourself!  And if you just need colostrum to feed 
> bacteria and not yourself, well, there doesn't have to be much.  And there 
> isn't because the kids aren't hungry and because Breastmilk is not food!
>
> We're talking normal babies.  Breastfeeding is normal.  It's what babies 
> are hardwired to do.  2009 or 209, the kids would all do the same thing: 
> try to find the breast.  Breastfeeding isn't special sauce, a leg up or a 
> magic potion.  It's not "best. "  It's normal.  Just normal. Designed for 
> the needs of a vulnerable human infant.  And nothing else designed to 
> replace it is normal.
>
> Colostrum also activates things in the baby's gut that then goes on to 
> make the thymus grow.  The thymus is part of the immune system.  Growing 
> your thymus is important.  Breastmilk= big thymus, good immune system. 
> Colostrum also has a bunch of something called Secretory Immunoglobulin A 
> (SIgA).  SIgA is made in the first few days of life and is infection 
> protection specifically from mom.  Cells in mom's gut watch what's coming 
> through and if there's an infectious cell, a special cell in mom's gut 
> called a plasma cell heads to the breast and helps the breast make SIgA in 
> the milk to protect the baby.  If mom and baby are together, like on mom's 
> chest, then the baby is protected from what the two of them may be exposed 
> to. Babies should be with mom.
>
> And the tigers.  What about them?  Define "tiger" however you want.  But 
> if you are baby with no skills in self-protection, staying with mom, 
> having a grasp reflex, and a startle reflex that helps you grab onto your 
> mom, especially if she's hairy, makes sense.  Babies know the difference 
> between a bassinette and a human chest.   When infants are separated from 
> their mothers, they have a "despair- withdrawal" response.  The despair 
> part comes when they alone, separated.  The kids are vocally expressing 
> their desire not to be tiger food.  When they are picked up, they stop 
> crying.  They are protected, warm and safe.  If that despair cry is not 
> answered, they withdraw.  They get cold, have massive amounts of stress 
> hormones released, drop their heart rate and get quiet.  That's not a good 
> baby.  That's one who, well, is beyond despair.  Normal babies want to be 
> held, all the time.
>
> And when do tigers hunt?  At night.  It makes no sense at all for our kids 
> to sleep at night.  They may be eaten.  There's nothing really all that 
> great about kids sleeping through the night.  They should wake up and find 
> their body guard.  Daytime, well, not so many threats.  They sleep better 
> during the day.  (Think about our response to our tigers-- sleep problems 
> are a huge part of stress, depression, anxiety).
>
> I go on and on about sleep on this site, so maybe I'll gloss over it here. 
> But everybody sleeps with their kids- whether they choose to or not and 
> whether they admit to it or not.  It's silly of us as healthcare providers 
> to say "don't sleep with your baby" because we all do it.  Sometimes 
> accidentally.  Sometimes intentionally.  The kids are snuggly, it feels 
> right and you are tired.  So, normal babies breastfeed, stay at the 
> breast, want to be held and sleep better when they are with their parents. 
> Seems normal to me.  But there is a difference between a normal baby and 
> one that isn't.  Safe sleep means that we are sober, in bed and not a 
> couch or a recliner, breastfeeding, not smoking...being normal.  If the 
> circumstances are not normal, then sleeping with the baby is not safe.
>
> That chest -to -chest contact is also brain development.  Our kids had as 
> many brain cells as they were ever going to have at 28 weeks of gestation. 
> It's a jungle of waiting -to-be- connected cells.  What we do as humans is 
> create too much and then get rid of what we aren't using.  We have like 8 
> nipples, a tail and webbed hands in the womb.  If all goes well, we don't 
> have those at birth.  Create too much- get rid of what you aren't using. 
> So, as you are snuggling, your child is hooking up happy brain cells and 
> hopefully getting rid of the "eeeek" brain cells.  Breastfeeding, 
> skin-to-skin, is brain wiring.  Not food.
>
> Why go on and on about this?  Because more and more mothers are choosing 
> to breastfeed.  But most women don't believe that the body that created 
> that beautiful baby is capable of feeding that same child and we are 
> supplementing more and more with infant formulas designed to be food.  Why 
> don't we trust our bodies post-partum?  I don't know.  But I hear over and 
> over that the formula is because "I am just not satisfying him."  Of 
> course you are. Babies don't need to "eat" all the time- they need to be 
> with you all the time- that's the ultimate satisfaction.
>
> A baby at the breast is getting their immune system developed, activating 
> their thymus, staying warm, feeling safe from predators, having normal 
> sleep patterns and wiring their brain, and (oh by the way) getting some 
> food in the process.  They are not "hungry" --they are obeying instinct. 
> The instinct that allows us to survive and make more of us.
>
>
> http://www.drjen4kids.com/soap%20box/normal_%20newborn.htm#.TwXeyDUzDw1
>
>
>
>
>
> Jo Elizabeth
>
> "How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, 
> compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant 
> of the weak and the strong.  Because someday in life you will have been 
> all of these."--George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, American scientist
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