breastfeeding gone wrong

The breast does not occlude the baby's nose. Breastfeeding requires suction which requires air. A baby who is suffocating is not going to continue sucking at all costs and commit nipple suicide. It drives me crazy when people tell moms they have to hold their breasts back from baby's nose. All the baby has to do if it is not getting air is unlatch.

More than likely this baby had an episode of apnea, some transitional issues or some gunk it needed to work up. It did NOT almost suffocate on the breast.

There are cases of babies who suffocate while breastfeeding- these are cases where the mother was exhausted or under the influence of something and suffocated the baby NOT a case of normal breastfeeding causing a death.

By the way I wanted to add the according to new NRP guidelines, higher concentrations of O2 do not confer benefit over room air so baby who pinked up with a few seconds of blow by would in all likelihood have pinked up with a few seconds of room air.

The NRP guidelines speak to the initial recus of the newborn...we used to give evry baby 100% FIO2 until they pinked up. Now we have found that this is not nesessarily helpful and, in fact, may be harmful in some cases. However.... this is a baby that was past that initial stage and as you said- may have had an apneic episode. It is perfectly appropriate to provide that baby with 02.

.