start strong: breast/chestfeeding initiation
Get your feeding journey off to the best start with these 5 keys:
1. Keep your baby skin to skin until after the first feed
In the 1st hour of life babies are usually awake and ready to feed. Take advantage of this golden hour by keeping their bare chest on your bare chest and closer to your milk supply.
delay all treatments (ie. eye ointment and routine injections) and interventions (ie. weighing) until after this first feed. All assessments can be performed while baby is on your chest.
2. Feed your baby often
Your baby’s stomach on day one is about the size of a cherry and holds about 5 – 7 mL (1 – 1 ½ teaspoons) of milk during each feed.
Tiny stomachs need to be fed at minimum every 2-3 hours (8+ feeds a day) or on demand.
If exclusive breast/chestfeeding is your goal, and your health care team suggests using artificial breast milk, ask “how can we accomplish this goal using my milk?”
3. Avoid pacifier use
If your baby wants to be soothed offer them your chest, for either a cuddle or a feed.
Pacifiers can be used once breast/chestfeeding is established, all the time spent at your chest now is putting in an order for a robust milk supply.
4. Room in with your baby
Rooming in with your baby allows you to learn their hunger cues and saves time bringing them back to their own room.
Let your health care team know that you will be accompanying your baby at all times.
5. Ask for help!
You don’t have to do it all! In fact, I implore you not to.
Enlist your loved ones to bring you water and snacks, get your phone, do the chores, change the baby and tell you how wonderful you are. It takes a village, call on yours.
Ask to speak with the hospital lactation consultant before discharge. They can help you overcome small issues that can snowball into bigger ones later.
Find a peer support group. It can feel lonely when your whole world revolves around your tiny human, and these parents know what that’s like.
