You plan to breastfeed your baby because you know that It is the best food you can receive. You know that it is recommended that you only take breast milk until six months, exclusively, and you know that it is recommended that the baby continue to breastfeed at least until two years, among other things because it is positive at the immunological level, always providing defenses, and because it is positive at the level of relationship, creating a very positive climate of trust between them.
However, you receive information everywhere, sometimes contradictory, and it seems that the more you want to know the less clear you have it and the more doubts appear. That's why today, in Babies and more, we want to offer you six tips, six things you should keep in mind to lay a foundation and start breastfeeding with good foot.
1. The sooner you start, the better
Until a few years ago a newborn baby was immediately separated from his mother to be valued by doctors. They weighed, measured, washed and dressed, valued the permeability of the nose, of the year, with probes, put cream on his eyes, sucked his mouth, administered intramuscular vitamin K and when they had finished with everything they gave it to the mother at best, or left in a nursery or nest, in the worst case.
The consequence of that separation and of all those methods that were done by protocol were that when it came to breastfeeding, when the baby finally had access to it, there were many problems. The children did not take well and it was necessary a lot of perseverance and a lot of work to achieve a healthy breastfeeding.
Now it is known that if the mother and the baby do not separate and at birth is placed on her, leaving them together until she makes the first take, the success in the grip is three times higher. That is to say, the probability of the baby taking the breast well is three times that if they are separated, so the ideal is that the baby starts breastfeeding in the first hour of life.
2. Open your mouth wide
Babies, to suck well, have to open their mouths, but wide open. If they are very tired, if they open little, they can only take the nipple and hurt. You have to have a little patience and not breastfeed right away if you are opening your mouth a little. It is usually recommended to put the nipple at the baby's nose, even touching his nose with him. This makes the baby know that it is up there and that he must open his mouth and throw his head back to catch it.
Babies do not suck on the nipple, suck on the areola, suck on the breast. But the nipple should be up on the palate. Therefore, to achieve a good position, you have to point it there, towards the nose. Then it will introduce it in the mouth from the top and with the tongue, which is what breast, will be able to extract the milk without harming. If you take only the nipple, or take it in the center of the mouth, it is easier to have pain and cracks due to bad position.
3. Do not take the head and put it on the forearm
The head has to have freedom to be able to lean back and as a general rule they don't like us to hold them there, because they try to get rid of the hand that squeezes them towards the chest. It is recommended to put hand on his back, to hold him, and let his head rest on our forearm, so that we do not put it on the elbow joint, where he could take the chest in a bad position.
The position of giving the bottle is that, face up, with the baby at the elbow, but the position to breastfeed is sideways, with the baby facing the chest and with the head in the opportune position so that the nipple is at the level of the nose. Sometimes his head will remain where we say, on the elbow, but many times it will remain in the middle of the forearm, so that is not the determining factor, but, as I say, where the nipple is with respect to his nose.
4. Do not hurry to put the pacifier
The pacifier is an optional element. So optional that there are many babies who don't even want it, and many parents who don't even offer it. To give an example (actually three examples), my eldest son did not want it either by active or passive and at medium and small we did not even offer it. To calm down they had mom and dad's tit and arms and we never had to worry about having to take it off.
But it is no longer just a matter of whether it is optional or not. The pacifier has some benefits, such as decrease the risk of sudden death, by promoting nighttime suction (if the baby is sucking, breathing and the risk of stopping breathing is lower), but to take it, it is better to wait until breastfeeding is well established.
Some babies get to confuse the way they suck with the way they take the pacifier. The chest is taken with the mouth wide open and the pacifier with the mouth tightly closed, if they get confused and try to do with the chest the same as with the pacifier they will not suck well, they will not be able to extract enough milk, they will harm the mother, It will cause cracks and problems will begin. That is why it is recommended to wait at least one month to offer the pacifier. In addition, if you start very soon with the pacifier, the fact of sucking can make the baby fall asleep at some time of crying, when what he had to do, in fact, was to eat.
5. Look for a breastfeeding support group, even if it goes well
Information is power, and it is both when you have problems and when you do not have them, in case you ever have them. In addition, your experience can be useful for other mothers, when you see the weeks and months pass, you control the subject more and more, and women with newborn babies and a thousand doubts arrive.
On the IHAN page you can see all the breastfeeding support groups in Spain and choose one that you have nearby, to go when you do well and listen to the doubts, problems and solutions related to breastfeeding and also, surely , with other issues related to motherhood.
6. Breastfeeding does not mean not being able to take medication
To say that women who breastfeed their babies can't just take medicine is a myth. The problem is that this myth is believed by many health professionals and, when visiting women who breastfeed, they have many problems to prescribe fully compatible medicines.
There are mothers who have suffered without needing not to take what they should take, others have stopped breastfeeding their babies because they were told "or the medicine or breastfeeding". It is worth knowing, from the beginning, that most medications are compatible and always have on hand the E-Breastfeeding website, where searches for medications and other substances can be carried out to know how safe or not they are.
Photos | Thinkstock
In Babies and more | The baby is born, how to start breastfeeding ?, Keys to successful breastfeeding, Tips for first-time parents: breastfeeding
