What every new mother needs to know about breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is a skill that a new mom has to acquire and like any skill, the more you practise the better you get at it.

Babies are born with a natural sucking reflex, but do rely on their mothers to get them into the best position closest to the breast for feeds. They can’t speak yet so they will use their unique crying abilities to cue us regarding feeding times – here lies the next challenge to try and distinguish between hungry cries from other ones. Now you know that they actually cry for lots of reasons of which hunger is only one of those.

Because we are so focused on birth, we seem to underestimate the challenges that may come with breastfeeding.

Get informed, do your homework and go for a pre-breastfeeding consultation. During this consultation possible anatomical challenges may be identified and possible solutions will be advised and discussed.

Ingredients “what’s cooking?”

Breast milk physiology

Breast milk production starts once the placenta is delivered (colostrum will already be available in your third trimester of pregnancy).

Each time a baby breastfeeds there are hormonal releases and stimulation occurring in mommy’s body to cue breast milk production.

The first two to three days, your breast only excretes colostrum (1ml colostrum = 7ml breast milk) so your body will have 5-7ml of colostrum available.

Breast tissue is a production facilitator, not a storage facility.

Your baby will let your body know how much milk they need, and with regular feeds and good latching, this will ensure proper stimulation and therefore good production.

The more your baby feeds, the more milk you will make.

Pre-birth advice on promoting breastfeeding

1. Ensure that you follow a well-balanced and healthy diet

2. Stay hydrated by drinking enough fluids

3. Get informed about breastfeeding, understanding it better makes troubleshooting much more effective.

Newborn physiology

Babies are born with a sucking reflex so they instinctively know how to suckle.

They are born with fat reserves from where they get energy. Once those reserves are depleted, your baby would have lost 10% of their birth weight.  This usually occurs on day three.

We want babies to be back at their birth weight between two and three weeks after birth.

A baby’s tummy has:

• 5-7ml volume capacity from birth to day three
• 22-27ml volume capacity from day three to seven
• 45-60ml volume capacity from day seven
• 80-150ml volume capacity from day 30

What is a good latch?

• Tummy to mommy! Most of your baby’s body should be in contact with yours.
• Baby latches with a wide open mouth.
• Sucks with a jaw-moving, chewing motion rather than sucking through-a-straw motion.
• Should never be painful.
• Only the tip of the nose is visible.

Breastfeeding procedure

First day

• Latch baby in the first two hours after birth
• Allow baby to breastfeed for an unrestricted time
• Work towards good latching
• Feeds will last between five and 20 minutes
• Baby can sleep for up to six hours, but try and wake them for feeds every three hours
• If baby wants to feed more frequently, please allow
• If they sleep allow no more than six hours without a feed

Second day

• Baby will be disturbed a lot by a doctor’s rounds, vaccinations, weighing, bathing, nappy changing, getting dressed and undressed and therefore would want to suck frequently for comfort. Allow comfort sucking as long as it is painless and comfortable.
• Baby will still only feed for short times (five to 10 minutes) and sleeping long stretches (four to six hours).
• Baby can sleep for up to six hours, but try and wake them for feeds every three hours.

Fourth day

• Breasts usually get engorged (meaning too much milk for baby to use).
• With engorgement breasts are swollen and hard, full of milk, making latching more difficult. Use warm compresses like a facecloth, breast shells, gel packs, bean bags to assist a let-down-reflex to leak out some of the milk until the breast is soft and comfortable for baby to latch onto.
• If uncertain on not getting better book a consultation with us.

Contact the helpful sisters at Homegrown Babies at Mopani Crossing Centre on 013 755 5500 for more information.