ANSWER: “So effective positioning and latch are key to facilitating milk transfer to your baby, preventing nipple soreness and encouraging a longer duration of breastfeeding. There’s many different positions to explore and I really encourage moms to attend a prenatal breastfeeding class or visit a La Leche league meeting before their baby is born so that they can be familiar with these positions and really feel comfortable exploring them once your baby arrives. To support a baby to latch, we want to make sure that we start with holding the baby in a well supported position. Then you can take your nipple and drag your nipple down across your baby’s lips. This is going to elicit what’s called the rooting reflex, and your baby will open widely to that stimulation on their lips.
When you see your baby opening their mouth widely, you want to (in that well supported position) You want to bring your baby onto your breast, avoiding moving your breasts towards your baby. Bringing your baby onto your breast is really going to allow you to maintain comfort and allow gravity to support your infant. Staying on in that nice deep latch. Once the baby is on your breast, you want to look at the corner of their mouth and see a nice wide angle and lips flared out. When you see those sorts of things, that’s going to let you know that your baby is latched on deeply while the baby is feeding. You want to make sure that you’re not in any sort of discomfort. If you’re feeling nipple pain that’s lasting longer than the first few sucks or 30 seconds into the feed, absolutely pop your baby off and try to re-latch again. This is a learning curve at the beginning of breastfeeding, so make sure that your patient with yourself and your baby as you practice.”
