Congratulations on your Pregnancy!
Preparing for a new baby is such an exciting time. There is so much to research, so many decisions to make. The decision to breastfeed is one many parents want more information on. There will be opportunities for you to learn about breastfeeding from classes in your local community, your health care providers, your friends and family, and online resources. Some of these learning opportunities will be fantastic and filled with evidence based information designed to support you meeting your breastfeeding goals. Some of these opportunities will be filled with inaccurate information leading you to practices that will undermine your goals, and undercut your confidence in your ability to make breastfeeding work. This page is dedicated to providing you with information and resources to support you in meeting your goals!
The three things I hope you take away from this page:
If you read nothing else from me I hope you will read these four things I believe to be the most important things I can teach you to help insure a successful breastfeeding experience for you.
Skin to Skin
The simplest, lowest cost, and most effective intervention to improve your chance of breastfeeding success is skin to skin. As soon as possible after birth have your baby on your bare chest, in just a diaper, with a warm blanket to cover both of you. This will help your baby to acclimate to life outside of the womb gently, allow your baby the opportunity to self latch, and help stablize your baby’s body temperature and blood sugars to reduce the need for intervention.
At a minimum we like to have skin to skin for uninterrupted for the first hour. In the event of a traumatic birth, or a birth with the use of certain pain medications, we like to increase the amount of skin to skin time as much as possible to support successful initiation of breastfeeding.
If there are ever issues with breastfeeding the first intervention that should be considered is allowing time for mother and baby to spend time skin to skin prior to initiating a feeding. This will help baby to stimulate the milk supply, start feeding when calm and content, and allow for the baby to utilize their innate feeding reflexes to successfully feed.
Feeding Cues
Feeding cues are the signs that your baby wants to breastfeed, and the earlier you detect these cues and offer the breast the higher the chances are of a successful feeding.
Early Feeding Cues:
Licking lips
Making a smacking or sucking sound
Sticking Tongue Out
Sucking Things Nearby
Rooting (Turning head and opening mouth)
Hands to Mouth
Later Feeding Cues:
Fidgeting and squirming
Fussing
Final Feeding Cue:
Turning Red
Crying
If you miss the early feeding cues you will need to calm your baby before offering the breast, an upset baby has a difficult time orienting themselves to get a good latch and have a good feeding
It Should Not Hurt
Breastfeeding should not hurt.
Nursing should not hurt.
Pumping should not hurt.
Pain is a signal that something is wrong, and that investigation is needed to determine what intervention is necessary.
Minor soreness or tenderness is normal in the beginning. To assess if what you feel is normal consider these factors.
Is the pain just at latch on and then subsides? This may be normal.
Is the pain really bad, making you dread feeding, or causing toe-curling or hard gripping of objects to cope? This is not normal.
Is there nipple damage? This is not normal.
Is your nipple flattened when your baby unlatches? This is not normal.
Pain medication during or after birth can mask nipple pain, visually inspecting your nipples can help identify issues early and before substantial damage can take place.
IF YOU ARE IN PAIN YOU NEED TO SEE A LACTATION CONSULTANT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Normal Infant Nursing Behavior
On average a newborn will nurse 8-12 times in 24 hours. Nursing this frequently helps assure your baby gets enough to eat and that your milk supply is properly stimulated to meet the growing demands of your rapidly growing baby. If your baby is not getting enough to eat the first question that will be asked is how often they are nursing, and if it is less than 8-12 times the recommendation made first will be to increase the number of nursing sessions.
The challenge is getting a newborn baby to eat this many times when they are sleepy! Newborns sleep on average 15-18 hours in a 24 hour period, and it can be extremely easy to miss feeding opportunities with a sleepy baby. The standard thinking is that feedings can only take place when the baby is wide awake, and sometimes they are inadvertently delayed until the baby has started fussing and crying (remember those are late feeding cues). With attention to early feeding cues, and identifying when your baby is a a light REM sleep cycle we can increase the number of feedings your baby takes.
