Breastfeeding Master Class Episode 2: Birthday!!!

In our last episode we discussed the importance of skin to skin right after birth. Today we're going to focus on what happens next.  Baby needs to stay skin to skin until after the first breastfeeding.  In the first hour or two your baby is more awake than he or she will be for the next 24 hours.  Get some good feeding in during this time.  If baby feeds well right after birth it's an excellent predictor of future breastfeeding success.  Those first little neuron connections formed in your new baby's brain will be all about feeding.  That's a good thing.  They'll remember what to do once they're ready again.

Gratuitous show-offage of my youngest's first feeding.  Ignore

the wrapped up baby and poor breast holding technique.  I wasn't 

a Lactation Consultant yet.   Much since then have I learned.  And 

yes, I know they're huge.  My boob was bigger than her head til 

she was two.

Now it is important to note that there are things you can do to help make learning to breastfeed easier in the first days.  First, plan for a natural delivery.  Epidurals and narcotic pain medicines can increase baby's sleepiness.  Pitocin and IV fluids can make your areolas swell up and swallow your nipples whole.  Bathing of baby before 6-8 hours of life is also a bad idea.  It makes them cry, cold, and exhausted.  They need to stabilize on mom's chest for a good long time before that kind of trauma.  I know that sounds overly dramatic but remember that nice idyllic life baby is used to.  That's not to say that if you have to have a medical delivery or baby gets a bath quickly that breastfeeding can't go perfectly well but these are a few things you can do to improve your chances of a successful breastfeeding experience.

So while baby is sleeping off his or her dramatic entry, keep them close.  Preferably skin to skin but at least in your room and within eye sight.  That will help so that when baby gives you those little cues that she might be ready to try to feed, you'll see them right away.      
        

Too Late!!!

Feed Me!!!

What to look for:

                                 *1st-moving around in his/her sleep

                                 *2nd-lip licking/opening and closing the mouth

                                 *3rd-rooting/sucking on hand

                                 *4th-crying

Now if you have a baby that has no interest in feeding the first day and won't wake up at all, it's OK.  We have a plan for that scenario.  We call it manual breast expression which is just a fancy way of saying you squeeze the milk out of your boob.  You can

Your milk "coming in" literally only means
there is an increase in the amount of milk.
It doesn't mean you didn't have any before.

collect it in a cup or spoon to feed to baby but I prefer just putting the drops right in the baby's mouth. It's a good idea to do this every 2-3 hours.  The reason for this is two-fold.   First it sends the message to your brain that it is milky time and in 48-72 hours your milk will "come in".  Second it will get some nutrition to baby.  Plenty of it.  In the first day babies will only get 3-5 ml each feeding.  That's a teaspoon or less and is all those little tummies can handle at first.  So all you ladies who are worried that you don't have enough milk at first, don't be! You have plenty.  And you'll continue to have plenty with lots of stimulation in the first few days.  For more information on manual expression watch this video from Dr. Jane Morton at Stanford School of Medicine.

Once you start closing in on the 24 hour mark you'll notice that baby is starting to show more interest in feeding.  It will probably start out with a few sucks then maybe 5 minutes and pretty soon it will be 20-40 minute nursing sessions.  Next time we'll talk about latching and how to know baby is getting enough!