She's So Alert!
Throughout the short three months our daughter has spent out of the womb, the most common comment we get from people is, "She's so alert!" I haven't spent much time around infants, so I don't know how alert other infants are. Our childbirth educator once said that the drugs from the cocktail that makes up an epidural can remain in an infant for up to a month and that a sleepy, groggy baby will, weeks after birth, begin to look more alert.
Has anyone out there had or been around medicated and non-medicated birth babies? Would you generally agree that medicated babies are less alert than their non-medicated counterparts?
Has anyone out there had or been around medicated and non-medicated birth babies? Would you generally agree that medicated babies are less alert than their non-medicated counterparts?
posted by Elle at 3:43 PM
5 Comments:
As an natural birth activist I'd love to give evidence to prove your theory. And I do believe the validity of it, but of my two kids Liv was staring across the room from birth on, bit the finger of my doctor while still in-utero from the neck down and threw the clamps for her umbilical cord across the room off the examination table. She was my epidural birth. Elise had everyone worried because she took her sweet old time with her first breath and first cry. She was just a laid back kid, and she was totally natural from beginning to end.
Elise was a better nurser from the get go. That could be from the drugs, which I know inhibit proper latch, or it could be from my second-time-around experience in getting her latched on. I'm not sure.
My daughter was pretty laid back until they laid her on the warming table to poke, prod and measure her. When she came out, they put her on my chest. She lifted her head and looked me in the eye. She was quiet and alert. It wasn't until they laid her down on the table that she cried.
I'm sure the length of the exposure to the epidural makes a huge difference and there are probably so many variables that I can't even begin to imagine how a study would be conducted.
Hello...I'm Rachel's step-brother's wife and I occasionally check in on your blog. I found your question very interesting. I have three little boys and had an epidural with the oldest and youngest (middle guy was a c-section and was immediately medicated for a heart condition after birth so he isn't a very good example). Both boys were some of the most alert, bright little things you would ever see. My oldest smiled at his grandpa about an hour after he was born--it wasn't gas-- and then stayed awake for about four more hours. Throughout his early baby days, he would much rather check stuff out than sleep. My youngest was very similar in all of this. Perhaps medication has some impact on babies, but it has never been evidenced in my life. I'm thankful for that too...I very much wanted a natural birth the first time around and was ever so slighty dissapointed that it just didn't work out that way. But, it didn't seem to be a problem for my kiddos so that was good. That helped me not feel any guilt for getting the epidural with my third...I had prodromal labor for three days prior to actually going into labor for real so I was very thankful for medication that time!
Hi Mandy! It's nice to finally meet you - even if it's just in that blog messaging sort of way! Thanks for the insight. I'm glad your babies were so alert despite the epidural.
I can't help but think that the effect of the drugs depends on so many things, including the person administering it.
After three days of labor of any kind, I bet the epidural was quite welcome!
What's the importance of having your child so alert the first month of their life? boy, that sounds cold...
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