[blparent] What is a normal, term human infant supposed to do? (article for moms with babies)
Veronica Smith
madison_tewe at spinn.net
Sat Feb 18 22:29:44 UTC 2012
I loved it. Didn't mean to make you feel bad. Smile!
-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 9:49 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] What is a normal, term human infant supposed to do?
(article for moms with babies)
Oh, I agree. The world isn't perfect. Sarah was born by C-section after
twenty-two hours of labor because her head was turned wrong, and if it
hadn't been for modern medicine, one or both of us wouldn't have made it.
She was born at seven pounds, one ounce, and because she couldn't latch on
at the breast very well, she lost fourteen ounces and had to be supplemented
with formula. I just thought the article was interesting and so I passed it
along for the sake of a good read.
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
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Veronica Smith" <madison_tewe at spinn.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 9:38 PM
To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] What is a normal,term human infant supposed to do?
(article for moms with babies)
> Very very interesting. However, Gab was an elevator baby and I had to
> have a c section. My darling daughter used her placenta as a pillow
> to sit upon.
> She also did not, could not turn or head out normally, so plucked out,
> she was.
> Again, in a not so perfect world, she ended up with tubes up her nose
> and needles in her little arms, as because, (my opinion) she did not
> squeeze out that extra fluid and ended up with pneumonia.
> She was born 7 lbs 13 oz and by the time that week was over, she had
> lost
> 13
> oz.
> v
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
> Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 6:03 PM
> To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
> 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#.TwXeyDUzDw
> 1
>
>
>
>
>
> 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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