How would you explain breastfeeding to someone who had never come across it before?

[TotorosOcarina]

Imagine I am a first time mum, who has never, ever heard of or seen breasfeeding beofre.

How would describe how to do it, how to prepare before baby arrives etc...

I just feel like I need a 'from scratch' step-by-step guide if I'm going to try again this time.

I always feel like I'm clueless!

Also any book reccomendations?

the new one is worth getting IMO. it's very different

Baby having wet / dirty nappies is a better sign that everything is ok than being able to see milk / colostrum or pumping.

Best advice I had was give it 6 weeks, sounds a long time but in terms of the baby's whole life its nothing and by then most 'challenges' will have faded. If you have other children this can be hard (I gather) so enlist everyone you can to keep them occupied - will save time in the long run!

Hold your boob as though you were holding a hamburger.

Give yourself small targets such as getting through two days and then to the end of the week.

All tips I got from MN.

~I would get the new one. It is very different. Much less....american iykwim

TIY - The rec. not to clean baby is so the baby will lick his hand to get the taste of the amniotic fluid so they can use that taste to hunt down the nipple by themselves.

It's explained [http://www.texas-midwife.com/Educational/Breastfeeding-Crawl.html here]] after the 2nd picture. Pigging difficult to read though with the enormous baby over the bottom corner of the screen!

Totoros - I don't know if anyone has mention Suzanne Colson or biological nurturing/laid back nursing but it is a great site and is a really useful technique if you have problems in the early weeks to fall back on (if you excuse the pun).

Fixing link

here

If you're leaking already and getting tingling sensation - from my experience it sounds like your 'let down' is working well and you should have more sucess this time!

What do you mean by 'tried three times before'? If you mean with previous babies then again from personal exp I found 2nd time around alot easier because I relaxed about it/didn't over analyse it/compared baby's habits to other bf/ff babies, mind you sometimes Health professionals did't help - they made me feel nervous about technique. All of the previous posters have gave excellent advice I agree with - wet nappies/weight gain (after 2nd week) is a good indication baby is doing well.

I was told to not express until after three weeks (mf) - I can imagine milk production won't have 'kicked in' properly before then. I wasted so much time with 1st born expressing and lamenting the small amount (approx 2/4 oz) that 2nd time around I just didn't go there and my baby is doing well.

Also re: clueless - babies/kids/teens are confusing to me most of the time - that's why I spend so much time on MN (albeit hunting for MIL threads on AIBU )

Good luck and enjoy!

ahh thank you TS! couldn't for the life of me remember why they'd said it was!

Totoros.... the Next LLL meet is Monday 4th April 10-12pm in the community room at Cheadle Library. They usually meet on the 2nd Monday of the month.

timely :)