study on lying down to breast feed and rates of continuing...

[popsycal]

bbc site

interesting

Interesting - has anyone seen the video where a newborn i.e brand new baby is plonked onto it's mothers naked tummy? The baby actually senses where it needs to go and actually crawls/wriggles it's way up her tummy to latch on - it's amazing. Oddly enough I always feed my DD lying down now, but when she was tiny we couldn't get the hang of it at all, I have big boobs and I think the head to breast ratio was just all wrong! But as soon as she got to 6 months or so we got it cracked - we were co-sleeping so nursing lying down made a lot more sense - and we have nursed that way ever since. TBH I am not sure I could nurse her any other way now! Funnily enough with mums I have helped as a doula, I found that the newborn boys were much better at latching on than the girls - haven't seen any research on that though.

I thikn feeding lying down really did prolong BF - it meant nights were almost bearable

It's more relaxing isn't it, and once dd and I'd firgured it out I could do it semi-sleeping, preserved some of my sanity I can tell you.....

I could lie down on my side and bf - that was very easy and comfortable - but I found lying down on my back to bf really uncomfortable. I heard it's supposed to encouarge the baby to lift their head, strngthen muscles.

Hang on a minute.... I feed lying on my side at night, but the article refers to the baby lying on the mother's tummy, which it specifically distinguishes from 'side-lying'.
Does anyone do this? How does it work?

I always fed lying down for night feeds. I thought it made more sense than getting up to feed. Also after a few weeks of feeding it meant I could just stick in the nipple and go straight back to sleep while the baby fed. Less disruption to sleep.

How fascinating. I've found with both dd's that they would often refuse to feed sitting up if they were over tired or in a bit of a strop but lying down usually calmed them down enough to feed.

Wow, that's fascinating! I occasionally fed dd2 lying prone because it was the only way to get her to sleep. She also fed that way if we bathed together, just helping herself. But I worried about the head-bobbing and also the FSIDS rules about babies not sleeping on their fronts so did.

Sorry, got cut off in my prime! ...did not persue it as a long term option.

Fab. Something I did because I was a lazy ar$e and meant I could drift off back to sleep was good for my babies' bf-ing ability. Hurrah!

excatly soupy
same reason here

I fed ds semi-lying down with him on my tummy after my cs. Gave me the most leverage to position him when I was effectively immobile from chest down. ds latched on fine. In the ward of cs mums, I was practically the only one having success with bf-ing. Now feed ds lying on my side - far more comfortable. Still going strong 7 months on.

Califrau - chuckling as I have the underarm nork problem when lying down also. At least if I lay on my side my breasts sort of rest on the mattress next to me! I have heard of bf lying down in a reclining position on your back being a good cure for oversupply/overactive letdown, but I could never get the hang of it.