Chinese Medical Professionals Promote “三早一晚： Three Early, One Late” after the birth of the baby. “Three Early” stand for: early contact, early sucking, early “opening the milk”. “One Late” stands for: delayed cord clamping.
Well, sounds good, doesn’t it? Seems to be in line with step 4 of the WHO’s Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding: Encouraging skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby soon after birth and helping mothers to put their baby to the breast right away. The WHO also recommends late cord clamping for all births, while initiating simultaneous essential neonatal care.
But in China there is a lot of misunderstanding about the meaning of “Three Early, One Late”. Early contact? What does that imply? Some seem to think that cleaning, weighing, checking, dressing the baby after birth and then let the dressed mother hold her bundled-up baby is enough… Or briefly letting baby’s cheek touch mom’s cheek. Even though there is so much evidence how good skin-to-skin holding is for term and preterm babies, many doctors do not recommend nor practice parent-baby skin-to-skin contact.
What about “early sucking” and “early opening the milk”? Seems like two ways of saying the same thing: put the baby to the breast right after birth, and by doing so start the milk flow! Surprisingly enough, in China some seem to believe that it isn’t the baby who “opens up the milk” by sucking on the breast, no, you need to use some kind of device to do this. I have had an obstetrician ask me once: “How do we best help moms start breastfeeding after birth?” My answer: “Put the baby to the breast as soon after birth as possible, preferable within the hour”. She didn’t understand: “Don’t we have to “open the milk” first?” Now it was my turn to be confused. Later I heard that some medical professionals recommend using a “microcurrent patch” prior to putting the baby to the breast in order to open up the milk ducts.
A Chinese colleague asked me to explain to moms and medical professionals the real meaning and application of “Three Early, One Late”. I hope this on-line video lesson will contribute to stimulating parents to hold their baby skin-to-skin and start breastfeeding right after birth and regularly after that!