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Breastfeeding Tips For New Moms And Newborns: When you receive that very first positive sign on that pregnancy test, you realize that your life is about to change as you prepare to welcome a sweet new addition to the world. As you prepare all of your baby items, choose the best car seat and stroller combo, decorate the baby’s room, buying all of the latest and cutest new baby outfits and accessories to match. You may begin to wonder about breastfeeding.
- How will you know what to do
- What if you have questions or what some tips for breastfeeding
- Who do you turn to for support?
Well, fear not! Continue reading to learn more about what to expect and all of the necessary information to set you up to reach your breastfeeding goals once your sweet
Breastfeeding Explained by a Lactation Consultant: Tips For New Moms And Newborns
little love is born.
Once your baby arrives, after they are all cleaned up and placed into your loving arms, it is now time to feed your sweet baby. If you decide to breastfeed, you will be supported by an in-hospital support person. This support person is referred to as a Lactation Consultant.
Who is a Lactation Consultant?
A Lactation Consultant is a specialized and trained expert in all things lactation-related. They hold licenses in the field of lactation and have extensive training. A lactation consultant must pass a series of prerequisite courses.
A lactation consultant must also possess 1000, 500, or 300 hours of lactation-specific clinical practice in an appropriate supervised setting under the direction of a current IBCLC before receiving approval to sit for the 4 hours proctored license exam.
What Does a Lactation Consultant Provide Support With?
A lactation consultant will be a support person to not only you but your entire family. A lactation consultant provides evidence-based practice, tips for breastfeeding, up-to-date clinical research methods, as well as education to everyone involved in this new journey in order to build a long-term support system for mother and baby. A lactation consultant will help the mother with many various breastfeeding tips and related issues such as:
- Low milk supply
- Clogged ducts
- Mastitis
- Poor latch
- Shallow latch
- Engorgement
- Tongue-tie
- Lip tie
- Weight gain
- Pumping
- Flange fitting
- Sore nipple management
- Weaning
- Tandem nursing
- Building a milk supply
- Oversupply
- Positions and tips for breastfeeding
- Baby falling asleep at the breast
- Reflux
- Colic
- Baby refusing to breastfeed
- Paced bottle-feeding
- Pain while breastfeeding
- Emotional barriers to breastfeeding
- Various breastfeeding tools such as a nipple shield, and SNS system (supplemental nursing system)
A lactation consultant beginning from the birth of your baby will help place your baby skin to skin with you as you and your new baby bond. They’ll also help latch your baby to your breast to introduce breastfeeding to them. The consultant also further helps understand how to perform breast compressions to stimulate milk output as your baby begins to receive colostrum and you await the arrival of your mature milk.
Why Is It Important to Hire a Lactation Consultant?
Once you and your new family leave the comfort of the hospital and staff, you and your new broad are left to your own devices as you return home to navigate this new lactation journey with your new baby. As you focus on healing from bringing this precious new life into the world and also begin trying to learn the best ways to feed your baby, it can become frustrating and overwhelming.
You may feel like you cannot learn all of the new breastfeeding tips and rules to maximize milk output while also ensuring that your baby is eating the correct amount of milk. You’ve to also focus on keeping your breasts from damage and develop a feeding routine that works well for you and your family. This is when hiring a lactation consultant comes into play.
Hiring a private lactation consultant will provide you with all of the necessary resources to ensure that you and your new baby are set up for breastfeeding success right from the beginning.
- They will assess you and your baby as well as perform an assessment of your baby’s oral anatomy.
- They will conduct a feeding and measure the baby’s weight pre-feeding as well as post-feeding to accurately measure milk transfer and output for each feeding.
- This important step is necessary to come up with a personalized care plan for you and your baby to succeed in your lactation journey together.
Breastfeeding Tips With a Lactation Consultant’s Support
With the support of a lactation consultant, you will learn the wonderful and fascinating ways that your body produces breast milk and ways to help potentially increase your milk production.
- You will learn proper latching positions, how to achieve a deep, wide latch
- How to assess your baby is swallowing and transferring milk, among many other amazing informative techniques to ensure a successful breastfeeding relationship between you and your baby
- You will learn the difference between such breastfeeding positions such as cradle hold, cross-cradle hold, football hold, and side-lying position
- Your baby will be exposed to various feeding positions so that together, you both can determine the best and most comfortable positions that work for both of you!
How To Find the Best Lactation Consultant
When it comes to setting both you and your baby with breastfeeding success, it is wise to do some research. There are several directories that have the names and contact information for local lactation consultants in your area that provide in-home or virtual lactation consultations.
There are also websites that offer the contact information of lactation consultants that accept certain insurance coverages. These specific websites are geared towards families that have a certain insurance plan and that will provide a set amount of lactation consultations cost-free to the client. This is a great resource for families that have the type of insurance coverage showcased on these specific websites.
Families can get individualized, lactation support either in the comfort of their own home with an in-home visit or virtually through a computer-based telehealth visit. Depending on your individual preferences as well as the severity of the situation, most lactation consultations can be completed through telehealth appointments. These telehealth appointments are schedule flexible and tackle all lactation-related issues.
Top Newborn Baby Latching Tips
While you contemplate on whether or not hiring a lactation consultant is right for you and your baby as you travel down this new road on your lactation journey, it is important to follow these important latching tips to ensure proper breastfeeding from the moment your baby makes their worldly entrance.
- Tickle baby’s lips with nipple so they open WIDE
- Allow the lower lip/jaw to attach FIRST
- Then rock baby’s head so the upper lip touches trying to get the nipple as far back into the baby’s throat as possible
- Make sure the whole nipple AND most of the areola (darker skin around the nipple) are completely inside the baby’s mouth
These tips are best performed with the support and assistance of a lactation consultant to ensure that your baby indeed has a wide, deep latch and can adequately transfer milk from the mother’s breast into their body.
It is also important to have support to ensure that the baby does not have any oral restrictions that can inhibit milk transfer or cause nipple damage and pain to the mother which can ultimately lead to the termination of the breastfeeding journey without proper support and education.
Breastfeeding Tips For Newborns Final Words:
Breastfeeding is difficult and as natural as we assume that it is before we, ourselves travel down that road as a new parent, with the proper support and guidance from a lactation consultant, you will learn the tools necessary to get off to a wonderful start with breastfeeding your baby as well as learn to navigate the bumps in the road on your lactation journey.
Breastfeeding is difficult, especially in the very beginning but with the proper support, this beautiful process can go on to help create a beautiful, nourishing bond between you and your sweet little baby.
Breastfeeding Tips For New Moms And Newborns FAQs
1)Who is a Lactation Consultant?
2) What breastfeeding tips does a private lactation consultant help with?
3)What are some latching tips to ensure proper breastfeeding?
Written By-
Brandi Nicole, Lactation Consultant
Brandi Nicole is a pediatric nurse, a postpartum doula, and an international board-certified lactation consultant. She is a proud member of the International Lactation Consultant Association, the United States Lactation Consultant Association, and the Bay Area Lactation Associates.
On behalf of the editorial team at Parenthoodbliss, we follow strict reporting guidelines and only use credible sources, along with peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and highly respected health organizations. To learn about how we maintain content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy.
