How to Latch your Baby
1. Position Yourself Properly.
Sit up in bed or in a comfortable armchair. You should be
relaxed with no muscles straining.
2. Position Your Baby Properly.
Your baby should be lying on his side with his whole body facing
you and his head resting on your forearm or in the crook of your
elbow. His back should be supported by your forearm and you can
hold his bottom or upper thigh with your hand. His ear, shoulder,
and hips should be in a straight line.
3. Offer Your Breast to Baby.
Cup your breast with your free hand, supporting it with your
fingers underneath and your thumb on top. When the baby opens his
mouth very wide, centre your nipple in his mouth and quickly pull
baby toward you. Its important to pull him in very close to you,
rather than you moving toward him.
4. Effective Sucking Techniques.
To suck effectively, your baby must get a large portion of the
breast tissue into his mouth along with your nipple. His gums
should completely bypass the nipple to take in the breast tissue.
The bottom lip should be turned out, the upper lip should not be
sucked in. Poor positioning can cause nipple damage or pain, so its
worth getting it right from the start.
Checking the Latch
Once baby is latched on, check his latch. If it's not a good
one, you should take him off thebreast and try again. Do not allow
a poor latch, as this can lead to sore nipples for you, improper
suckling habits for baby, and baby not getting as much milk as
possible during a feeding.
If you need to remove baby from the breast, first release the
suction. Slip a finger into the corner of baby's mouth, between his
gums. Hold your finger there to protect your nipple while removing
it from baby's mouth. Try latching on again. (As baby gets older
and more experienced, this will get easier!)
Look at the areola:
- Baby should have part of the areola in his mouth, not just the
nipple!
- Baby may be perfectly centered on the areola. This is called
"bulls-eye" latch.
- Baby may take in more of the breast by his lower lip, and you
may see part of the areola above his top lip. This is called an
"asymmetric" latch.
Look at the baby:
- Lips are flanged out, "fish lips." The tongue is over lower
gum, under the nipple. Make sure lower lip is not tucked under,
though this may be hard for mom to get a good view of when baby is
latched on well.
- Baby's chin indents breast tissue a little.
- Baby's nose is touching breast. Baby can breathe easily with
nostrils flared out specifically for this purpose. If he has any
trouble breathing and pulls away from the breast, try lifting your
breast a little, or pulling his legs closer to you. Don't press on
your breast to move it away from baby's nose because this may pull
your nipple out of the back of baby's mouth, which could cause
nipple soreness.
- Baby's cheeks look full, not sucked in as if sucking on a
straw.
You can see swallowing motions in his temple, lower jaw, or ear.
He begins feedings with rapid sucks, then, once milk lets down,
there is a slower pattern of bursts of sucking and short pauses. In
the early days, he may suck 5 times without swallowing. After day
5, it's typically suck, swallow, suck, swallow.