Learn how to breast-feed before you give birth: That’s the advice I gave to a friend of mine who is about to have her first child. With a 10-month-old on my hip, I’m no expert on all things parental, but I did feel confident offering her the “learn now” nugget of wisdom.
It may seem counterintuitive (like putting a condom on before you go out on a date), but I credit that approach with my seamless transition into nursing, which for many women is the first real struggle of motherhood.
See, what no one ever tells you and what your mother may have forgotten, is that breast-feeding is a learned skill, and it’s good to have some preparation for the first docking moment. When you bring that baby to your breast in the labor and delivery room, there is no string quartet playing Bach as a gauzy film washes over you and your tiny baby opens her mouth to gratefully receive the free-flowing milk from your breasts.
No. The baby is screaming, you’re exhausted, the nurse is unhelpfully pushing the baby’s head onto your heretofore dry nipple. No milk is coming out, everyone is watching you, you’re getting nervous, and the baby begins screaming more. At least that was how it was for me, and I bet I’m not alone.
A rocky start may not seem like a big deal, but the problems of breast-feeding compound quickly. Even if a baby is getting some milk out, a host of painful problems can crop up—from cracked and sore nipples to a breast infection—if he doesn’t learn how to latch on properly.
And that’s when many women stop breast-feeding. Tara Parker-Pope of The New York Times Well blog recently wrote about some of the reasons women switch to formula feeding, and discomfort was a big one. (According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost three quarters of mothers make a go of nursing, but only 12% are exclusively breast-feeding their babies at 6 months, which is what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends.)
I didn’t learn it at home
In a traditional, extended-family culture, I would have grown up watching my mothers, sisters, and cousins feed their children, and I would have stored that knowledge for the day when I needed it. But few of us are introduced to the intimate and technical aspects of feeding a child with our body, and that’s where lactation consultants come in.
One of the best teachers is Australia’s Rebecca Glover, an International Board–certified lactation consultant whose video, “Follow Me Mum,” is the reigning favorite among breast-feeding instructors. Yes, it has cheesy music and women with out-of-date haircuts, but Glover’s simple technique, repeatedly demonstrated in the video, involves a specific way to hold your child, bring her to you, and pop your nipple into her mouth for a successful latch. In the hospital it worked as soon as I had some privacy to give it a go. And, within a week, my nipples had gotten over the initial soreness of being used in a new way, and my daughter and I were off on an easy, enjoyable journey together.
Other problems can and do arise during breast-feeding (I won’t go into my clogged nipple pore), but learning what you can—before you are thrown into the deep end and told to swim—will help a lot. You can order Glover’s video online, but it’s not cheap. A less expensive option is to find a breast-feeding class that uses the video as part of its instruction (many do), or ask your local library to order a copy. If you have a little money to spend and cannot find a class near you, set up an appointment with a lactation consultant before you give birth. To find one, visit ILCA.org.
Update: This blog post was selected to be part of the September 2008 Breastfeeding Carnival. Please check out the other wonderful posts in this series:
Breastfeeding Education at Hobo Mama | Breastfeeding Education at Breastfeeding123 | Learning to Breastfeed at Breastfeeding Mums | So, You Want to Work in Breastfeeding Support at The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog | How I Learned to Breastfeed at The Beautiful Letdown | Carnival Post at Momopoly | Let’s Take Our Perverted Society to School at Babyfingers |
Comments (5)
I agree!
Breastfeeding is a skill that both mother and baby need to learn and preparing oneself beforehand will certainly tip the scales in your favour.
As a pregnant mum, I have found Maire Clements’ Blog Talk Breastfeeding Show invaluable in my own preparations:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheBreastfeedingSalon
Also, I have created a free special report on ‘Breastfeeding Success With the Law of Attraction’ which helps set mums up for a successful, satisfying and joyful breastfeeding experience.
http://www.MagicalBeginningsForBaby.com/breastfeeding
Thanks for this post!
Deirdre Morris
Inspiring Magical Beginnings
As a Childbirth Educator (LCCE, FACCE) and IBCLC I have and have shown in my classes “Follow Me Mum”. As a Mother/Baby nurse I find that many of our new Mothers have a very unrealistic approach to Breastfeeding and even at times parenting.
They don’t prepare for classes and if you get a class where they have practiced with a doll or teddy bear (both are and never will be like a very sleepy and epidural influenced baby) it is a mess in the making. Many of our girls can’t even appreciate that birth is a real journey for both them and the baby.
Baby is sleepy so either feed it a bottle or let it sleep until it wakes…both answers are incorrect.
I first tell Moms to do skin to skin. If they have had an opportunity to BF after delivery then I have time and don’t have worry about feeding baby after the transition, but since most of our deliveries are cesarean then we need to act sooner than later. Skin to skin reboots the baby to mom. Then another tidbit is not to over stress baby by playing “pass the baby.” This past year I hear of the concept of no one except Mom and Dad hold baby til it feeds 3 times. I know overly excited grandparents and relatives sometimes are disappointed, but once they hear how it allows baby to settle in and get reorientated after birth they are very cooperative.
Letting Moms know that it may take 24 hours for some babies to get their breastfeeding acts more in sync. I find they have more patience. I see them thinking if they aren’t leaking milk they don’t have milk. They think if they hook up to a pump they will produce a “quart of milk aka a bottle like a cow when it’s milked”, They only get a self fulfilling prophecy of “no milk” when they go to a pump.
Education is the most important thing we can provide, but until medicaid and all insurances offer free or low cost classes and families avail themselves of it we will have some challenges that could have been minimized.
Till the TV Baby stories offer some really good information on the necessity of classes and really promote BF we will have to spend time with Mothers who have unrealistic expectations of breastfeeding.
This generation doesn’tread or subscribe to the newspapers, they blog and textmessage and cell phone. Yesterday, I had to tell a sweet Mom to stop texting and tend to her baby, Another one took her I Phone to restroom to do the Internet while she was impatient to void because it didn’t just happen.
As long as they are in hospital and baby is sleeping they are thrilled baby is so good, but it’s that Second Night as Jan Bargar, IBCLC writes so realistically about that sends them into a tailspin and off to our class.
My unit’s Performance Improvement Project shows that about 90% are breastfeeding either exclusively or supplementing for Medical Reasons at time of discharge and at two weeks attrition is down to 52% and at 6 months between 7 and 10 %. Most often by 3 months Mothers have to go back to work.
Thus we need to instill realistic expectations through education and try to get longer maternity leaves with pay for mothers if we are to reach the 2010 National Goals for Breastfeeding.
I work in a hospital and am going to start teaching breastfeeding basics classes in November, and I’ve been to several of them to prepare. The problem is, these people have minimal knowledge of breastfeeding. If you tell them all the problems–most of which they won’t even have–some of them will go straight to the store and stock up on formula. (They annoyingly believe that formula is just about as good. Bah!) Of course, since we DON’T do an extensive overview of the problems they may have, some of them end up being surprised with them. It’s a rock and a hard place. I’ve met so many people who don’t realize that their problems are really not breastfeeding-prohibitive. People excuse themselves by saying “well we were breastfeeding, but she had jaundice,” or “it seemed like he wasn’t getting enough.” I think the real obstacle is the take-it-or-leave-it attitude so many families have toward nursing. I’ve seen a few women with seriously challenging problems who were committed because they knew it was important and made it work in the end. I wish everyone was like that!
I am a certified postpartum doula in Massachusetts and I agree with Jenny. I have had many clients come home from the hospitals with poor latches and sore breasts. New moms should insist on seeing the lactation specialist in the hospital even if she thinks breastfeeding is going well.
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