While breastfeeding is a natural activity for mothers and babies, we can never know how it will actually go for a nursing pair. How your birth goes can greatly impact breastfeeding. Your best shot at easier, pain-free breastfeeding is a vaginal birth and learning essentials for breastfeeding.
Babies are born with multiple skills for their brand new activity of breastfeeding. But your baby can only access their innate reflexes when moms and helpers set up the right conditions.
Skin to skin in the first days is one of the most valuable practices. This contact wakes up many reflexes for baby. But there is so much more that we can arrange for baby to successfully feed, for your milk production to begin well and for your own comfort.
Know how you want your baby and you to begin breastfeeding. Be prepared to direct your own process at the hospital. Advice from nursing staff may be all over the board; and they may even contradict each other. Postpartum nurses have widely varied training; not all of it best practices. And not all advice works for everyone. If you are truly struggling, you may have the rare privilege of getting a little time with the most highly trained breastfeeding professionals, an IBCLC (Internationally Board Certified Lacation Counselor). Ask staff for their credentials, especially if you’re in pain and baby’s not feeding well.
Your best advance preparation is the video series, Natural Breastfeeding. In over 60 short evidence based videos, an IBCLC demonstrates with mothers and babies how to help your baby take her active part in breastfeeding. Trouble shooting videos also shows how to solve problems when baby is at the breast.
Your baby may need craniosacral therapy to resolve the impacts of birth on their head, and on breastfeeding. All MamaBebe breastfeeding clients receive free access to the Natural Breastfeeding videos.