It’s simple – breastfeed your baby. It doesn’t need any preparation and hard work neither any special training. Simply bring baby mouth near the nipple and you will find baby gropes at nipple and start sucking. It is a God given rooting and sucking reflex. It doesn’t need any training. Your mother or any senior woman who has fed a baby is the best lactation consultant in case of a doubt.
The biggest concern of a mother is when to feed, what should be the interval, how long to feed and if milk is enough to fulfil a baby’s need?????
The simplest funda is to always feed on demand: let child ask for it when hungry. In long run, he will be eating and drinking appropriately and will not be overweight. Breast milk is easily digestible and till 30 to 45 days of life, a breastfed baby may ask for feed every 45 to 60 minutes. There will be long sleeping periods of 4 to 5 hours, don’t wake the baby from sleep, he is assimilating the feeds taken. Sleep should never be disturbed.
Feed baby from one side at a time and another side next time. If baby sleeps while feeding try to tickle to encourage a little more feed, if the baby is still sleeping it means he has filled his desire. The baby will not sleep if her tummy is not full. Take baby on your shoulders for a while so that baby may burp, then make baby sleep on a side. Count number of times baby passes urine, if the baby passes urine as many times he is feeding it means he is taking sufficient feeds. Another indicator of sufficient feeding is the growth of baby- if it is appropriate feeding is also appropriate.
An expecting mother should be mentally prepared by her doctor for breastfeeding. Breast examination should be an important part of an antenatal check-up. If there is any malformation of nipple or breast it should be handled during antenatal visits with your obstetrician.