3 Most Common Mistakes: Breastfeeding
Expert advice from a lactation consultant.
by Babble Editors
July 11, 2008
What are the three most common breastfeeding mistakes?
Expert: Freda Rosenfeld, CCE, International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant – Interview by Meghan Pleticha
1. Not being prepared to learn
People think, I'm just gonna have this baby and it's natural. It is natural, but you want to be prepared — you want to know what to expect, so that you can get yourself as ready as possible. Two hundred years ago, when you had a baby, you probably saw ten women nurse in your lifetime before that point — your mother, your aunt, your sister, your cousin — because it was a very a different world. So you had a better idea of what to expect. So the first thing is to be prepared. I think everyone should take a prenatal breastfeeding class. I think I'd see a lot less people if that happened, because then they would have some idea of what to expect. And to expect a learning curve. Like that it might hurt the first day, but it shouldn't hurt past day three.
If they are struggling, the first thing is to speak to their pediatrician, because he or she may be able to help them or have a name. I get half my referrals from doctors. If that doesn't help, they should log onto ILCA and find a lactation consultant in their neighborhood. And if they want to take a prenatal breastfeeding class, the first route is to check their hospital (if they are offering them) or again go on ILCA. Not all of us, but most of us, do prenatal classes.
I emphasize position. Position means no pain because the baby's being held properly, and position means that the baby should drain the breast and gains weight. You want to hold the baby totally parallel, facing you, tummy to tummy or chest to chest, whichever term you like better, so that the baby's head is right over the breast, so the nipple goes all the way to the back of the mouth, which is where you want the breast tissue to go, you want the baby to fill his or her mouth with breast tissue, so the nipple's in the back of the mouth. If you have a pretty normal breast, and a pretty normal baby, just really watching that latch — making sure the face is right over the breast — should do the trick. And in prenatal breastfeeding classes they have dolls, they have model breasts. We walk you through all that, that's what's so good. So it's like cramming what you would have learned two hundred years ago.
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