There is a phrase that I love, related to the ability of living beings to get ahead, fight and adapt that says: "Life is making its way". It is something like remarking that nature is capable of being changeable to stay alive, and that the living are able to continue despite all possible impediments.
We always think that babies are born very unable to survive. Well, the reality is that without parents or other adults who take care of them little they have to do. However, it is surprising to see that they are born being able to find their own food, crawling and moving over his mother's body to grab his chest.
This is what the photographer Leilani Rogers, a childbirth and lactation photographer from Austin, Texas, captured with a impressive sequence of photos of a newborn crawling up to her mother's chest.
Just what the parents wanted
As he explains Rogers, the photographer, when talking with the parents before the birth, asked them about the time of the baby's birth, about if there were any moments that they considered more important to be immortalized. Jessica and Don, the parents, told him that they were very excited to have images of "breast crawl", from the moment a baby crawls up to the chest.
The hospital was very respectful of the process and did not get between the baby and his goal. Thus, the mother was able to stay with Harper for more than an hour and so the moment came when the girl decided to go in search of her food.
That's why the first hour is sacred
Formerly mother and baby were separated at birth to carry out various actions that were considered necessary: weigh, measure, wash, check the permeability of the airways and anus, etc. However, it was found that all these actions could wait if the baby was born healthy and that the same separation affected not only the bond between mother and child, but also suction. And is that separated babies at birth have more sucking problems and have shorter breastfeeding.
Thus, by allowing mother and baby to be together, the newborn can crawl, reach his mother's chest and make a first shot that is totally instinctive. Y an instinctive take is better than a take (The one in which we put the baby as we consider best, the nipple is put where the mother wants and urged to breastfeed can leave a worse imprint than the baby takes with the method with which it is born, by instinct).
I leave you with the sequence of photos, so you can see them one after the other. Very curious mother's face, surprised by Harper's abilities, his daughter:
Photos | Leilani rogers
In Babies and more | The 14 photos that show how incredible a birth is for mother, father and baby, If you place it on your abdomen after childbirth, the baby will instinctively crawl up to your chest, The power of instinct: the newborn seeks the breast from mother to breastfeed
