[blparent] What is a normal, term human infant supposed to do? (article for moms with babies)
Kate McEachern
kflsouth at gmail.com
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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