Practical mum is sharing

My dear friends,

I just got free hands to share with you few lines about breastfeeding. This special moment which connects mothers with their babies, since they do not have any more their belly cordon physically available. So I consider breastfeeding as one of the invisible tight among mum and baby.

I have learned few things regarding to this topic, and since they were crucial for me to understand for successful breastfeeding I hope that they will help you too.

When you breastfeed:

1. Find a good position in which you can stay at least 30-45 minutes (sitting, lying).
2. Always the baby has to go to you, do not bend your back……. I did that and within one week I got a strong back pain and my back would look like bow………. not nice and painful
3. Your baby should be fed as many times per day as he/she asks for….. it means every hour if asks, this is min. interval for breastfeeding (so the model situation can look like………you are breastfeeding your baby for 45 min – max. time and then you let him/her to rest for 15 min) and if he/she asks again you can start the whole process again so you will breastfeed about 12-15 times per day, sometimes more.
4. In the beginning you should feed from both breasts in one time, because your milk is not milk yet (it is called colostrum – it has yellowish color like melted butter, it is full fat and full energetic “drink”) and also you will feel lot of tensions in your breast so release possible pain. After the week or more it is individual start to breastfeed always only from one breast in one feeding session, because now you have already full milk which contains more liquid front milk and more fatty and energetic back milk. So you have to give a time to your baby to be able to drink both kinds of milk. If your baby will drink only front milk because you will be changing your breast it can cause colic to him/her.
5. I made the mistake, because at the hospital they told me that I should keep an interval of 2-3 hours between feeding, but my baby was crying because of hunger/thirst……… now I know……… something different is if your baby is tiny and is not asking for food……… then you have to wake him up to feed him and let him to put some weight. The interval then is 2-3 hours and over night max. 4 hours
6. Do not give your baby anything else than milk, he/she does not need water or tea if he is thirsty. Do you remember that you have front and back milk. So basically front milk is for thirst and back milk is for hunger. So the result is that your baby does not need anything else than your milk.
7. If the baby is falling asleep, just softly caress him behind his ear or under the chin….. it will stimulate him and he will start to drink, but also let him rest, this sucking is for him quite hard work.
8. When you breastfeed, keep in mind that kids should feel comfortable also, when you hold him in your arms the baby should have in one line his ear, arm and hip.

There are also endless amount of videos shoving how you should offer your breast and different positions used (have a look for breastfeeding tips). So feel free to have look on youtube or other pages. For Slavic languages reader I can recommend the Lactation league website.

My son is waking up so maybe some other things will come later

Yeah I fed him, our session took about 45 min, but now if you could see his smile saying “I am full”, I would eat him if I could.

I just remember that to this topic belongs also beginning of lactation. Because the birth of my son was done through C-cut at the end, obviously my lactation started a bit later, since the hormones which started the process were produced a bit later. Because I did not know this information I got scared at the beginning, because usually lactation starts within three days after labor day. And surprising for me was also fact that babies do not have to eat for 3 days anything because they have still some “food storage” from uterus and their prenatal time. It is totally normal if new born baby used to loose about 10-15% of their weight after they are born. We as mums do not have to be worry at all. Edie had 3130 g when he was born and after 5 days when doctors send us home he had 2880 g. So he lost about 200 g and I was told that if he lost more it would have been normal. This case is specially in breastfed babies.

But I wanted to tell you something about lactation. As I mentioned above I started to be worry that it will not come. In the Czech Republic, my home country, is common practice, that after mum delivers, they bring the baby within 30 min after the labor. This early and short period of time is important for start up of the lactation process. The baby started to suck and even I did not have any milk that time it was clear signal to my body that the lactation process should start. And really in 4 days it started. Specifically over night from 3rd to 4th day. I started to feel that my breast is hurting, getting tense and becoming bigger. My ordinary size was something between “nothing and something”, we call it size “A” but in that time my breast grown into the size between B and C………… surprise I got boobs and also it was full of milk.

In this case is really important to have baby near by you and started to breastfeed as fast as possible, because it is one of the ways how to release the pain which appear. What you have to do with your hard breast is to make it softer for your baby, especially area around your nipple otherwise baby will not be able to suck the milk. You can manage by preheating your breast by solar light or warm towel which you will apply at least for 15 min before you start to breastfeed and you can either use your hand or milk extractor/pumps to take some milk out. This process is not pleasant believe me. But on the other hand is much better to heat your breast, to extract some milk, even your breast hurt, because then you will release pain from produced milk and also you will avoid fever from stacked milk in your breast. Fortunately I did not experienced that, but my room mate did and it was not pleasant to see her. She got 39°C and in the same time she had to take care about baby. So If I can advice you, resist the pain and uncomfortable for few days  because then the production of milk will calm down to the amount which your baby needs and your breast will not hurt any more.

So when you are at home from the hospital, just take your time and if you know that you should breastfeed at 5am just rather wake up at 4am, take warm shower, make massage to your breast, start to pump your nipples and prepare your breast for your baby.

I hope that these paragraphs did not sound scary, I just wanted to support you, when you will feel some uncomfort. But believe me it will last only few days and thanks to hormones which are produced since you deliver and your mums love you can manage everything…….. simply hold on and be strong!