Breastfeeding: The First Days

Gail Raymon

ParentTime

I’m expecting and I want to nurse my baby. I’ve heard that what happens in the first hours and days following birth can get breastfeeding off to the right start. What do I need to do to ensure that my baby can nurse successfully?

— Anonymous

Ideally, nursing will take place within two hours after birth, and often it occurs within minutes. Many factors influence whether you and your baby will be ready to nurse right away. A new study indicates that women who have given birth for the first time and those who had particularly long and stressful labors may take longer to produce milk. Another potential problem: Pain medication taken during labor can cause a baby to be sleepy and uninterested in nursing. Also, it may take a few attempts for you and your baby to learn the proper technique.

But even when breastfeeding doesn’t begin smoothly, women can go on to nurse successfully. Knowledge on the topic and guidance from professionals or experienced mothers will help you resolve problems quickly. Reading books on the topic can help you prepare. Two handy references: The Nursing Mother’s Companion (The Harvard Common Press) by Kathleen Huggins and The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (NAL/Dutton) by La Leche League. Talk to nursing mothers for advice. Your local chapter of La Leche League, a nationwide breastfeeding support group, will help you find other nursing moms in your area. Find out who the group’s contact person is for new moms. Tuck her number into your hospital bag and post it by your home phone. If you can, attend a meeting before giving birth.

It’s important to talk with your health care providers now about your plans to nurse. Your obstetrician or midwife will examine your breasts. If you have flat nipples, you may need to stroke or pinch them right before nursing to make them protrude. If you have inverted nipples, wearing plastic breast shells at least a half hour before breastfeedings may help. Ask your pediatrician to put written orders into your baby’s chart that state that your baby is not to be given bottles of glucose water or formula and should not be given pacifiers. These common procedures can cause your baby to become confused between the different nipples of the breast, pacifier and bottle. Your baby is also more likely to reject the breast if introduced to a bottle early on since a bottle’s nipple rewards a baby with milk quicker than the breast does. If you are giving birth in a hospital, request that your baby room with you. Then, you will learn to recognize your newborn’s feeding cues and you can nurse her as often as she wants. Nursing on your baby’s schedule, not the hospital’s, will ensure that your milk supply meets her needs.

After birth, take advantage of available support. In the hospital, a midwife or maternity nurse will assist you in positioning the baby close to your body and making sure that your infant latches onto the breast properly. Some hospitals have lactation consultants who give advice to moms in the hospital as well as after they leave, either by making home visits or answering questions over the phone.

Even if your baby nurses vigorously at birth, he will probably enter into a long sleepy period on the first day before settling into a more regular eating/sleeping pattern, though this will still vary somewhat for a while. In the first few days, your baby receives small amounts of your first milk, called colostrum, a thick, golden fluid loaded with immunities. Around the third day, your mature milk will come in and you may experience some pain as your breasts fill up. The best antidote is to nurse your baby as often as possible, about a dozen times a day.

The first days of breastfeeding can be a learning experience for you and your baby. But if you persevere, you’ll be glad that you did. Breastfeeding will benefit you and your baby in many ways. Nursing infants receive many health advantages: protection from illness due to immunities in breast milk, reduced incidence of allergies, respiratory diseases and diarrhea, and promotion of correct jaw and teeth development. Women who breastfeed have a lower incidence of breast cancer than those who don’t nurse. Breastfeeding also helps regulate the changing hormonal levels in a woman after birth, making a case of the baby blues less likely. And, you’ll enjoy a bonus of close bonding moments with your baby.