PREGNANCY

What do newborn babies know about breastfeeding? More than we thought, apparently, according to some recent research into "self-attachment."

A team of Swedish researchers wanted to see if newborn babies left on their mothers' stomachs after birth could find the breast on their own. Videotape documentation showed the babies "crawling" up their mothers' bodies without assistance and finding the breast. The babies then moved toward the nipple and nuzzled or licked at it, eventually latching on and beginning to suck.

Subsequent studies suggest that this process of self-attachment should be encouraged. Babies who are left to self-attach have very few problems latching on and their mothers almost never experience sore nipples or related breastfeeding problems.

Dr. Pat Martens, a researcher and assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba, notes that self-attachment has become common practice in Norway and Sweden.

"Research from those countries has given us some new pieces of information," says Martens. On average, it takes 50 minutes for babies to find the breast on their own and begin suckling if they're placed on the mother's abdomen after birth. (Babies whose mothers received pain medication during labour had more difficulty finding the breast and latching on.) This suggests to Martens that trying to put babies to the breast too soon after birth - before they're really ready - may be causing breastfeeding problems.

Self-attachment is still unusual in Canada, says Martens, but nurses who have tried the technique are seeing very positive results. If you want to encourage self-attachment when your baby is born, discuss this with your caregiver before the birth. You will need to make sure there will be a good source of heat (such as a radiant heater over you and your baby) to keep the baby warm during this process.

If you didn't get the opportunity for this kind of first feeding, and find your baby is having latching problems, the self-attachment research may offer another solution. Martens notes that Australian researchers found that putting the mother and baby in a warm bath together - so that both were relaxed - and then allowing the baby to find the breast and self-attach seemed to improve many breastfeeding problems. "It was like giving them another chance at the process they'd missed at birth," Martens explains.

It adds up to more intriguing evidence of the inborn abilities of babies.

Winter 1999/2000