The Breast Crawl

When a baby is born vaginally as part of an unmedicated labour and delivery and are delivered directly onto the mother’s abdomen, amazing mammalian instincts and reflexes take over. While we have all seen documentary footage of other mammals seeking the nipple or teat immediately after birth, many people are astonished to discover human babies are primed to do exactly the same thing!

In 1993 Ann-Marie Widström observed, described, studied, and validated what is now called “the innate sequence of the human mammal at birth” or “the nine stages of newborn instinctual behaviour” leading the newborn to self-regulate at birth and find the breast to breastfeed for the first time.. This is sometimes also referred to as The Magical Hour or Golden Hour.

In our modern world, mothers do not always get to have the gentle, natural birth detailed in their birth plan. Interventions, complications, protocols and policies can all create barriers to birth and the immediate postnatal period. Sometimes we can advocate against these, other times we are thankful for their life-saving outcomes. Grief and trauma can be experienced by parents whose experiences of birth and breastfeeding have been traumatic. Unfortunately first-time parents are often most at risk of experiencing these traumas.

However, some factors can be considered as choices which we can control. Creating a breastfeeding plan and making sure your caregivers inform you how interventions might impact your goals is important. Learning how skin to skin contact and an uninterrupted first hour support breastfeeding establishment will help you decline non-essential interference and separation.