Golden Rules for Successful Breastfeeding

Early breastfeeding
The first postulate of successful breastfeeding is early attachment to the breast (within the first hour after birth). It is ideal if the baby can suck a little already in the delivery room. Previously, in the 60-70s, colostrum was considered useless, which is why the baby was taken away from the mother immediately after birth and brought in for the first feeding only on the third day. In fact, precious drops of colostrum are absolutely irreplaceable for a newborn. They charge him with immunity against microbes, millions of which he encounters in the first minutes of his life. It is colostrum, and not milk, that is most suitable for the baby. In the first days, his stomach is able to digest only a few tens of grams of food. Therefore, only very fatty colostrum produced by the mother’s body during this period can provide him with adequate nutrition.

Mother and child staying together in the same room
A lot has been said about the importance of mother and baby being together in the maternity hospital. Only in this case can the mother feed him on demand. With 6-7 feedings per day (as is customary in most maternity hospitals, where children are brought in for feeding after 3-3.5 hours), the breasts do not receive sufficient stimulation, and lactation becomes worse. For a newborn to maintain 3-3.5 hour intervals between feedings, and even with a nightly 6-hour break, is unnatural, because for 9 months he received nutrition from the placenta continuously. It is normal for your baby to breastfeed up to 20 times a day or more. Don't count feedings - neither you nor the baby need it.

Don't try to limit feeding times. If your baby grasps the nipple correctly, you will not experience any discomfort from sucking. Perhaps her chest will hurt out of habit only in the first day or two, and then she will adapt to her new job. Most women experience pleasure from the feeding process.

If your baby is ready to suck almost continuously in the first few days, then in order to protect the breast and reduce pain, you can limit the time he sucks on one breast to 5-10 minutes, after which, gently pressing your little finger on the corner of his mouth, release the nipple. If your baby continues to whine (especially at night when you can't rock him or carry him in your arms), offer him the other breast.

Why you shouldn't express milk
The more your baby nurses, the faster it will begin to produce enough milk for him. If you feed on demand, do not express milk after feeding and allow the baby to suckle as much as he wants, then the mother-child system will very quickly develop between you. This means that the mother's breast produces exactly as much milk as the baby eats.

Now imagine that after feeding you have expressed the remaining milk (to the last drop, as doctors previously recommended, it will not work, since milk is produced constantly, you express, but it comes). So, you have expressed milk, and thereby given your body a signal that it needs as much milk as your baby drank, plus what you expressed. By the next feeding, more milk will come in, and you will have to express it again. Thus, your body works with double load, and it is quite possible that lactation will fade away earlier than it would have happened if you had not overloaded it.

When is pumping useful?
All of the above does not mean that milk should never be expressed. On the contrary, there are times when it is simply necessary. For example, on the 3-4th day after birth, when the milk comes in sharply, and the baby still sucks very little, and besides, he is not yet strong enough to pump out a tight breast. Thick, fatty milk has difficulty flowing through undeveloped ducts, and if you do not express it, it is very easy to develop lactostasis (milk stagnation) and even mastitis. Not to mention