Breastfeeding

By Stacy DeBroff

Breast milk provides all the nutrients your baby needs, is easy to digest, and can reduce the incidence of allergic reactions. It also gives your baby a significant boost to the immune system.

Colostrum, the milk you produce for the first few days post-partum, like breast milk itself, is packed with antibodies and other protective substantives that continue to help your baby fight infection and ward off illness and disease. Colostrum has more protein and calories than regular breast milk and helps reduce the occurrence of ear infections and diarrhea.

Your body tailors your breast milk specifically to the unique nutritional needs of your baby. The milk's content changes based not only on the hour of the day, but based on your baby's age. Your baby receives exactly enough food and the perfect nutritional composition.

Breastfeeding helps you get back in shape more quickly, as it triggers contractions that return your uterus back to its original size.

Breastfeeding has been shown to reduce the risk of breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer and osteoporosis. The more you breastfeed, the lower your risk.

Breastfeeding may help ease postpartum depression and promote the bond between you and your child.

Breast milk is always available and never needs preparation.

You save hundreds of dollars by not buying formula.

GETTING STARTED

Find a comfortable place at home, somewhere that you can rest, put your feet up, prop your arms up, and relax with your baby. An armchair or rocker with lots of cushions works well.

Use a reading pillow with arms for nursing in bed. You can still recline somewhat and your arms are supported while you nurse. Or place baby on a pillow in your lap to bring her closer to your breast. Make sure your baby's entire body faces you, not just her head.

Balanced meals and plenty of sleep are benefits you pass along to your breastfeeding baby. Keep healthy food and plenty to drink right where you nurse during the day, so you can refuel while your baby feeds. As a nursing mom you need to eat approximately an additional five hundred calories each day.

Observe the same dietary restrictions as you did during your pregnancy: no smoking, caffeine, alcohol, or drugs. Some foods you eat, such as chocolate, may make your milk taste strange to your baby. Others, like beets, may color your baby's stool.

Drink lots of extra fluids, especially water, to replace what you lose while breastfeeding. At night, fill a glass with ice that will melt in time to make a cool drink for you during your late-night feeding.

Nurse before exercising, as rigorous exercise increases the amount of lactic acid in your milk, which is not harmful to your baby but gives it a sour taste.

If you have an infection, infectious disease, or must take medication that would be harmful if passed on to your child, do not breastfeed without consulting your doctor.

Stay in your pajamas during the first couple of weeks if it convinces you to rest and take it easy during the day in order to conserve energy for your newborn, yourself, and the rest of your family.

To breastfeed discreetly in public, drape a sling, shawl, blanket, or cloth diaper over your baby, or wear a nursing blouse with flap openings. To find privacy and a place to sit down in the mall, look for dressing room or bathroom lounges.

Your newborn needs to nurse every two to three hours and will generally nurse for fifteen to forty-five minutes at a time. She will likely let go on her own when she is finished. You can watch how she sucks and swallows to learn when she is done or when it's a good time to switch breasts.

For the first few weeks, wake your baby to eat if she sleeps for more than three hours at a stretch during the day.

If you seem to have less milk than your baby wants, nurse more often to increase milk production.

If you want to know if your baby gets enough to eat, check her diapers. She should have at least six wet ones each day.

Keep a few eight ounce cans of formula in your house in case of an emergency. That way you'll have them on hand if you come down with an illness and your doctor says you cannot breastfeed, or if the fridge breaks and thaws your entire supply of pumped milk while you are away from your child.

If you breastfeed and work, feed your baby just before you leave her with your caregiver, and ask your caregiver not to feed her within an hour before your return so you can nurse her immediately when you arrive home.

To keep your baby awake long enough to finish her meal during a late-night feeding, switch breasts, change her diaper, or burp her in the middle.

If you plan to feed your child with both breast and bottle, start out by breastfeeding your baby exclusively for the first couple of weeks until your milk supply is well established. When your baby reaches between three and eight weeks old, introduce a bottle of expressed milk. If you wait longer, your baby may have more difficulty adjusting.

For multiple babies, change and feed each baby in a consistent order. With multiples it's easy to lose track of who has been changed before or after a feeding. Always change and feed the babies together, and then you will know. Keep a chart of which baby nursed first, so each has a chance for your first milk and hind milk.

Because breastfeeding sets you up as the exclusive person who can feed your baby, especially in the early weeks before the introduction of a bottle, encourage your partner to share in the nurturing and to learn baby care basics right alongside with you.

LATCHING ONTO THE BREAST

To help your baby latch onto your breast properly, brush her lower lip over your nipple to cause her to open her mouth. You want her mouth to open wide (as if yawning) before you pull her to your breast. Your baby should cover the entire nipple, as well as some of your breast. Your baby's chin and nose should touch your breast.

Signs of a successful latching:

Your baby takes pauses, meaning she's actually swallowing. If this does not happen, slide your finger into your baby's mouth and press down on the top of your breast to unlatch her. Try positioning your baby again.

You see the pink inside of your baby's lips, rather than the outer skin. This indicates that her lips are correctly turned outward.

There's no gap at the corner of your baby's mouth where milk could leak out.

Her ears wiggle-when your baby actively sucks and swallows, the muscles in front of her ears move, signaling the engagement of her whole lower jaw in a strong suck.

Try these variations to the typical cradle hold if your baby has difficulty latching onto your breast:

Position your newborn on the arm opposite the breast being nursed and guide her head to the breast, in a position called the cross cradle.

While sitting, position your baby perpendicular to your body, on the side of the breast being nursed, and tuck her under your arm (like a football). Support her back with your forearm and her head with your fingers. Her legs should tuck between your elbow and your body. This alternative, called the football hold, works great if you've had a c-section and want to keep pressure off your abdomen.

Lie down alongside your baby, positioning her mouth to align with your breast.

To help you remember which breast to nurse on first each time:

Attach a safety pin to your bra strap.

Switch a ring between hands, or a watch between different wrists.

Stuff a tissue into your bra, or label your breast pads with a laundry marker.

WHEN YOUR BABY REFUSES TO NURSE

If you have your baby on a schedule, the times you've picked to feed her may not match up with the times she needs to eat.

Your baby may be coming down with a virus, cold, or infection. An ear infection may cause pain for her when she gets into the nursing position.