Correct way to hold the breast??

[maveta]

In the breastfeeding book I´ve got it says you should hold your breast with the hand from the same side you are going to feed from with the fingers UNDER and the thumb on top. Then on one of the breastfeeding videos from the link Mears left on Mossie´s thread, it says you should be holding it with fingers and thumb on either SIDE (not above and below). But a couple of the other videos showed women doing it the way my book says.

AAAARGH.. does this really matter and which way IS correct?

I don't hold my breast usually but on the occasions I've had to help him latch on then I use the opposite hand as I use the same arm to hold him with.

If you've got big boobs you hold the baby under your arm, and if you've got small boobs you have the baby across your lap. However you can get a grip on your boob to get it to stay in your baby's mouth is entirely up to you!

This is where breastfeeding advice is so crap. Woould you sit in the same position in the same sort of seat in every car you drove? No! Boobs and babies come in millions of shapes and sizes and everybody's experience of trying to marry the two is completely different. If it's comfortable for you both and the baby stays latched on, then you're doing it right.

I don't think I ever really held my breasts at all! Sorry, that's not very helpful. When I started bf-ing, I used to put DS on a cushion on my lap, and use the hand from the other side to position the breast. But I really only did this for a couple of weeks and then the whole thing became so instinctive that I didn't have to do it. I hope it's as easy and lovely for you.

Fingers and thumb on either side shape the breast in such a way that the baby can 'usually' attach more easily. Thumb-on-top position tends to squash the breast into a trickier shape for the baby to get plenty into his/her mouth. I find that 'either side' supports the breast a little better too.

I say 'usually' however, because it is a bit of trial and error and what is most comfortable for you - like most breastfeeding advice! But I have been taught to avoid 'thumb-on-top'.

I don't really hold my boobs either[and they are big]. Occasionally if I want ds to latch on I use the opposite hand with my fingers underneath and thumb. Generally I just put his head near and he finds his own way.

Maveta - although it looks like different advice regarding holding the breast it isn't really. The shape of the breast depends on how the baby is positioned. In the video clip where the fingers were either side, it was because the baby was going to be attached onto the breast lying across the mothers tummy.

Basically you want to narrow the breast in line with the baby's mouth so that the baby is able to latch on more easily (like you eating a sandwich - you bite itot it on it's side where it is narrower). The will mean that your thumb and fingers will be in different palces depending how the baby is lying and where the breast naturally points.

On the latching on link you will see that the mother does not need to hold the breast at all.

Dos that make it clearer?

I hold my breasts and was advised to do so when I saw a BFC.
I hold it with my opposite hand to the boob and with fingers underneath and thumb on top.
Now DD is getting bigger I find I only need to do this to latch her on or if I am sitting in different chairs when out and about.
I really just support my boob I was warned against 'scissoring where you 'nip' the boob between two fingers.
Holding ont my boob and being tolldto do so turned my feeding around.I was really struggling and this really sorted things for us.

ok thanks.. i do find i have to hold my breast as between quite large areola and a suspected tongue tie in ds, he´d never latch on otherwise...