Sucking out the nose/throat after birth

[california_mom]

I'm a first time mom to-be. What is the reason for using using that suction ball-thingy (Sorry, I'm having a pregnany-moment and can't remember what it's called! ) to suck out whatever it is in the nose and throat of a newborn? Are the docs worried about possible meconium in the air passages? I have been seeing movies of births and wonder if the docs ever scratch the baby's throat or do some damage from it. They do it so-o-o quickly and, it seems, without thinking... :

[JamieCatheryn]

Sometimes it's for meconium, if there was some in the waters they are especially forceful about suctioning. More it's just for amniotic fluid and mucus. But a healthy baby in a normal birth doesn't often need it, the chest being squeezed on the way out makes all that stuff shoot out of their nose and mouth anyway. The most common problem suction leads to is mouth aversion so trouble nursing

[california_mom]

Do mothers opt to NOT have this done?

[georgia]

Here's a great thread about suctioning

Doing something,because that's the way it's been done in the past, without evidence-based reasoning behind it, without thinking....yes, this all sounds very familiar....

[tinyshoes]

Originally Posted by california_mom

I'm a first time mom to-be. What is the reason for using using that suction ball-thingy (Sorry, I'm having a pregnany-moment and can't remember what it's called! ) to suck out whatever it is in the nose and throat of a newborn? Are the docs worried about possible meconium in the air passages? I have been seeing movies of births and wonder if the docs ever scratch the baby's throat or do some damage from it. They do it so-o-o quickly and, it seems, without thinking... :

Seems like you're doing some thinking!

I am beginning to realize that our first glimpses at birth--like what happens during a Routine Hospital Birth--are VERY IMPORTANT and can help us make choices that match our yet-untapped inner desires.

When I was engaged to be married, and I saw a photo of my cousin who had just had her first baby, I saw the IV in her hand....I wondered, but why does she need an IV just to have a baby?

When I would watch A Baby Story on TLC nonstop before my first was born, and I always wondered, doesn't it hurt the newborn's head to pull on it as it's born? (like, you would NEVER hold a newborn baby that way, but it's still a newborn baby when it's being born, right?)

..........but then women get pregnant, get in The System, and sometimes, that critical eye, that "well, how come they do X" gets lost......I assumed episiotomies were practically FUN! because why on earth would MDs still be doing them? no MD--no highly educated practitioner who vowed first, do no harm--would ever do a procedure without an excellent reason, right?

Keep that critical eye!