Getting Started With Breastfeeding | Helpful Tips for First Time Mums

Breastfeeding tips for first time mums

When you hold your baby for the first time, you should put his lips to your breast. The nurse will encourage skin to skin contact from the moment your baby is born. Although your mature milk hasn’t developed yet, your breasts are still producing a substance known as colostrum that helps to protect your baby from infections.

If your baby has trouble finding or staying on your nipple, you shouldn’t panic. Breastfeeding is an art that will require a lot of patience and a lot of practice. No one expects you to be an expert when you first start, so you shouldn’t hesitate to ask for advice or have a nurse show you what you need to do.

Once you start, keep in mind that nursing shouldn’t be painful. When your baby latches on, pay attention to how your breasts feel. If the latching on hurts, break the suction then try again.

You should nurse quite frequently, as the more you nurse the more quickly your mature milk will come in and the more milk you’ll produce. Breast feeding for 10 – 15 minutes per breast 8 – 10 times every 24 hours is an ideal target. Crying is a sign of hunger, which means you should actually feed your baby before he starts crying.

During the first few days, you may have to wake your baby to begin breast feeding, and he may end up falling asleep during feeding. To ensure that your baby is eating often enough, you should wake him up if it has been four hours since the last time he has been fed.

In general your baby will cluster feed on the second day of them being born, mothers tend to find this time to be quite tiring as the baby will want to feed every two hours.

Getting comfortable
Feedings can take 40 minutes or longer, therefore you’ll want a cosy spot. You don’t want to be sitting somewhere where you will be bothered, as it can make the process very hard.

Breast Engorgement

Breast engorgement is very common and mothers tend to experience this in the early stages of breastfeeding when their body is still trying to regulate milk supply.
Learn more about breast engorgement and how to relieve engorgement pain.

Breastfeeding Benefits – how breastfeeding benefits you and your baby

Once you’ve given birth, breastfeeding is the single most important thing you can do to protect your baby and help to promote good health. Best of all, breastfeeding is free.

Along with saving you money on formula, breast feeding can also help you to keep your medical bills down. Breastfeeding can help reduce illnesses such as ear infection, respiratory infections, and other problems.

This can be even more true if your family has had a history of allergies. When a baby is breast fed, the
antibodies pass on from the mother to the baby, helping to protect against illness and allergies. As
the baby’s system matures, his body will begin to make it’s own antibodies, and he’ll be more equipped
to handle sensitivities of food.

Sucking on the breast will also help with the development or jaw alignment and the development of
the cheekbone.

Unlike formula, breast milk is always ready, always available, convenient, and always the right temperature
for feeding. Plus, it contains all of the vitamins and minerals your growing baby needs.

Breastfeeding also offers many benefits for the mother as well. The baby sucking at the breast will cause
contractions right after birth, leading to less bleeding for the mom, and helping her uterus to it’s shape before pregnancy much faster.

Breastfeeding will also burn calories, so it is possible for a breastfeeding mother to lose weight postpartum. Breastfeeding will also create a special bond with the mother and the baby – which is one thing formula simply cannot do.