Doria is a Choice Mom, midwife and lactation consultant. She offers this Top 10 list for breastfeeding success:
Posted February 3, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Doria Keesling
Breastfeeding tips
Tips
1) Make the Commitment! - Ask those around you to speak positively about breastfeeding and ask the hospital to support your choices. Find a pediatrician who supports breastfeeding.
2) Rally your team - Let friends and family know that you will be breastfeeding and that you are looking for support.
3) Put your baby skin-to-skin immediately after birth - Discuss this with your health care team, letting them know that you would like the baby placed directly on your chest while the baby is dried and assessed, unless there is a medical reason to do otherwise.
4) Put the baby to your breast within the first half hour of birth - Let your birth team know that you will be breastfeeding immediately and you would like help. Ask friends and family for privacy, if needed.
5) Keep the baby on your chest - We often want to wrap babies in blankets and pass them around the room. There will be lots of time for that later. Newborns should stay skin-to-skin with their moms so they can smell your skin and milk, and maintain stable vital signs. There will be less crying too!
6) Ask for the help of a lactation consultant - Many hospitals now have lactation consultants on staff. Ideally your lactation consultant will be an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant), a person who has done many hours of lactation care and passed an international exam in order to become certified. Go to www.ilca.org or www.llli.org (La Leche League) for help.
7) Feed on demand - Most new relationships have some ups and downs, so be patient with yourself and your baby. Your baby is learning a new skill and will want to practice often. Your body is learning how much milk to make, and will need regular reminders to make enough. If your baby is crying to let you know he is hungry, then he has gotten too hungry. There are many early cues of hunger such as licking his lips, putting his hand to his mouth, and "rooting".
8) Stay in bed/Sleep when baby sleeps - Lack of sleep makes everything worse. If you need to stay in bed for 12 hours to get 8 hours of sleep, then that's what you should do. Babies do sleep a lot when newborns, so take advantage and take lots of naps all day long.
9) Seek postpartum help - Ask your friends to drop off meals at your house, ask someone to come stay with you for several days, or hire a postpartum doula to help with baby care and do some light cooking and cleaning.
10) Stay positive! - Breastfeeding can be challenging and the postpartum period is like no other time in your life. Reach out to people who support your choices and ask for help. Keep in mind the big picture and stay positive!
Reader Comments
Posted February 5, 2010 at 8:00 PM
I've been pumping the breast milk rather than nursing. I had some problems with latching and non-elastic skin on my breasts, and this is the one time I've played the "single mother" card and decided I don't have the time to nurse for 45 minutes every 2- 2 1/2 hours. That's almost 12 hours a day nursing alone. I rented the breast pump from the hospital, and pump 3-4 times a day for about 15 minutes a pop. I also can monitor how much he's getting. I do supplement with formula -- maybe 2 of 7 or so feedings a day. There's no nipple confusion as it all comes out of the bottle. I highly recommend the hospital pump -- stronger than anything you can get at home and hand pumping is for the birds. I will say that I probably had a harder time than most. When a lactation consultant tells you you know, you don't have to breast feed if you don't want to, it's not going all that well.
Posted February 4, 2010 at 8:05 PM
Regarding the hospital pump question....in my experience, the hospital grade pump was much more efficient (i.e. stronger suction) at getting the milk out. I used one for 3 months and would easily get about 5 to 6 ounces out per session (both breasts) several times a day (about 6 times a day and once or twice at night if memory serves me). I had to do that because he didn't know how to latch or nurse back then. All of his milk had to be expressed into bottles for him. Once he got the hang of it at about 8 or 9 weeks, I was able to nurse more and express much less (though that is hard to give up when you are used to seeing how much they are getting and suddenly you have to go on faith that they are getting enough). I returned the hospital pump (the brand started with an "A". Sorry I forget the name of it) at that point and switched to the Medela, Pump in Style. I was lucky if I got 3 or 4 ounces out per session. Then that dwindled down to about 2, maybe 2 1/2 ounces at a time. It still worked for me, but it did cause me some concern at first! At that point my son was nursing really well and I only needed to produce about 8 ounces per day for him to get him through 6 hours a day at the sitter's house. Even once he started solids at 5 1/2 months, I always left 8 ounces for him every day along with a few frozen bags in case I got caught in some sort of emergency situation and couldn't get back on time (only happened once, but I sure was glad I knew he had enough). I was very happy to give up pumping altogether last month at 13 months! Now, my little one eats what I eat (mostly) and drinks regular milk. He nurses to go to bed, maybe once during the early morning hours, and when he wakes up and that's pretty much it. If I am home, he will nurse to go down for a nap in the late morning. So, just remember, the pumping isn't forever ladies! Sometimes it feels like it, but eventually it ends!
Breastfeeding was really, really important to me and I am so glad I did it in all its forms, but I am REALLY glad the pumping part is over! I will actually miss breastfeeding when it's over, but all good things come to an end and we are so busy bonding in other ways now that it really is ok!
Posted February 4, 2010 at 8:00 PM
I pumped at work for over 10 months, and it worked out great. Get a hands free bra, some easy entertainment and relax for 15-20 min while pumping. I found the lactation nurse at the hospital where I had him a great source of information.
By chance I found out one time that a hot towel straight out of the dryer and held to my belly (to avoid leaks) increased milk flow. I guess the body sensed a 'small body'- so I did that when I had a chance to.
When the hospital offers you the free formula samples, take them... even if you're going to breastfeed exclusively. You never know if you might have trouble getting your little one to gain weight and if you might need to supplement during those first few weeks. And you're not going to want to go out into the world and try to understand the overwhelming number of choices you have in the formula aisle at the store. The hospital will likely give you ready-mixed bottles, and those little bottles saved us during those first few weeks. My son is now breastfeeding exclusively, but he was a very sleepy baby (c-section) and didn't have interest in eating early on, so getting calories in him was essential to waking him up and making him a more aggressive eater. I don't think I could have done it without formula.
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Posted February 6, 2010 at 8:05 PM by Heather
It's really going on vary who needs them, I leaked horribly with #1 for about the first 2 years. With #2, I've rarely leaked but make sure to wear the pads when it would be really bad to be leaking or I know were going to miss a feeding for some reason.
I have nursed 2 babies and had problems nursing both and wondered if it was going to make it both times but in the end I did it. It took about four months to figure it out with #1, and #2 was born with issues, and even at a year we still had problems but she couldn't suck on a bottle either and did better with the breast and a feeding tube is a bit of a pain and drastic. Anyway she's 21 months now and things are fine (it really helped finding what was causing her feeding issue) so some times it takes time to figure things out and it just depends on how determined mom and baby is. I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel with #2 because it was so hard, but insurance wouldn't cover her specialty formula she needed and she tolerated breast milk just fine, so they actually put it in writing I had to continue breastfeeding. I'm glad I stuck with trying to make breastfeeding work or else she would just be another statistic lost to SIDS (they are finding a number of babies thought to be SIDS cases are actually babies with mito defects who went into crisis and died) and it means I get to sleep through the night now rather then get up every 2-3 hours and get her a bottle (she did finally learn to suck at 13 months!).