Breastfeeding your newborn baby

Are you a new mother or are you going to be one?.
Will you breastfeed your baby?

Breastmilk is best for infants. A nursing mother"s breasts produce milk with the exact composition the baby requires. It contains the mother"s antibodies which protect the baby from illnesses in these early years.

Sure, you can give your baby formula milk which is derived from cow"s milk or soy, but mother"s milk is still best for the baby.

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Philips Avent Washable Breast Pads
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How do you get your newborn baby to breastfeed?
Babies are born with the suckling instinct. Right after birth, as soon as you can, bring your baby to your breast so that your baby can learn to feed.

Some newborns have no problems breastfeeding. Others might suckle a while and then cry in frustration because the milk doesn"t seem to come out. That might mislead the mother to think that she does not produce enough milk.

The truth is, the more the breast is milked, the more milk mother would produce, provided she eats adequately, relaxes and drinks plenty of water.

Also, the baby has to suckle a while to trigger the let-down reflex when milk suddenly gushes out before slowing to a trickle. I knew when that happened with one of my babies.

Initially, he would suckle, then choke when the milk suddenly gushed into his unsuspecting mouth. He would pull away and glare angrily at the offending nipple which spurts milk everywhere. With experience, he would suckle, then duck while I catch the spillage with a sterile, empty bottle. Then when it slows to a trickle, he would resume his feed.

By the way, when the baby is feeding on one side, the other would leak, so to prevent wastage, hold a sterile, empty bottle under the other side to catch the drips. You would be surprised at how much you might get, which you can freeze and store for later use.

It helps to decide before the baby is born whether you want to fully breast feed the baby or to supplement breast milk with formula milk. The hospital I delivered my first baby in was very pro-breastfeeding. Those babies whose mothers decided to fully breast feed them were not given a bottle. If fed by the nurse, they were given milk from cups and all of them had no problems drinking from the cups the nurses tipped at their lips. This is to avoid nipple confusion.

Milk flows right out of a teat with little effort from the baby while with the mother"s breast the baby has to suckle in order to coax milk out. Hence babies used to the bottle are more likely to get frustrated trying to breastfeed.

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Lansinoh Breastfeeding Collection, Disposable Nursing Pads
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My second child had problems breastfeeding. He would suck so hard until it hurt, then he would cry in frustration because nothing came out. The problem was he only took in the nipple.

For successful breastfeeding, the baby has to take in as much of the areola (flat dark part of the nipple) into the mouth as possible when suckling.

Thankfully, the hospital had a nurse who was a breastfeeding consultant. She taught my baby to feed. I put him to my breast and she slipped a finger at the edge of his mouth to coax him to open his mouth, the positioned him to take in more of the areola. It worked. He was feeding happily after that. He got it in one lesson. After that, breastfeeding was a breeze. It was getting him to stop that was a nightmare.