by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC

Here's What You'll Find Below:Breastfeed soon after birth
Skin-to-skin contact
Latching correctly
Rooming in -- good for baby, good for mom
Avoid artificial nipples
Nurse as long and as frequently as baby wants
Remember free formula samples are not gifts

Breastfeeding is the natural and normal way of feeding infants and young children, and human milk is the milk made specifically for human infants. Starting out right helps to ensure breastfeeding is a pleasant experience for both you and your baby. Breastfeeding should be easy and trouble free for most mothers.

The vast majority of mothers are perfectly capable of breastfeeding their babies exclusively for about six months. In fact, most mothers should be able to produce more than enough milk. Unfortunately, outdated hospital policies and routines based on bottle feeding still predominate in too many health care institutions and make breastfeeding difficult, even impossible, for too many mothers and babies. Too frequently also, these mothers blame themselves. For breastfeeding to be well and properly established, getting off to the best start from the first days can make all the difference in the world. Of course, even with a terrible start, many mothers and babies manage. And yes, many mothers just put the baby to the breast and it works just fine.

The basis of breastfeeding is getting the baby to latch on well. A baby who latches on well gets milk well. A baby who latches on poorly has more difficulty getting milk, especially if the milk supply is not abundant. The milk supply is not abundant in the first days after birth; this is normal, as nature intended, but if the baby's latch is not good, the baby has difficulty getting the milk. It is for this reason that so many mothers "don't have enough colostrum." The mothers almost always do have enough colostrum but the baby is not getting what is there. Babies don't need much milk in the first few days, but they need some.

Even if the mother's milk production is plentiful, trying to breastfeed a baby with a poor latch is similar to giving a baby a bottle with a nipple hole that is too small -- the bottle is full of milk, but the baby will not get much or will get it very slowly -- so the baby sucking at the breast may spend long periods on the breast or return to the breast frequently or not be happy at the breast, all of which may convince the mother she doesn't have enough milk, which is most often not true.

When a baby is latching on poorly, he may also cause the mother nipple pain. And if, at the same time, he does not get milk well, he will usually stay on the breast for long periods, thus aggravating the pain. Too often the mothers are told the baby's latch is perfect, but it's easy to say that the baby is latched on well even if he isn't. Mothers are also getting confusing and contradictory messages about breastfeeding from books, magazines, the internet, family and health professionals. Many health professionals actually have had very little training on how to prevent breastfeeding problems or how to treat them should they arise. Here are a few ways breastfeeding can be made easier:

Skin-to-Skin Contact

• The baby should be skin-to-skin with the mother and have access to the breast immediately after birth. The vast majority of newborns can be skin-to-skin with the mother and have access to the breast within minutes of birth. Indeed, research has shown that, given the chance, many babies only minutes old will crawl up to the breast from the mother’s abdomen, latch on, and start breastfeeding all by themselves. This process may take only a few minutes or take up to an hour or longer, but the mother and baby should be given this time (at least the first hour or two) together to start learning about each other. Babies who "self-attach" run into far fewer breastfeeding problems. This process does not take any effort on the mother’s part, and the excuse that it cannot be done because the mother is tired after labor is nonsense, pure and simple.