- #Open hands full closed hands hungry baby how to#
- #Open hands full closed hands hungry baby manual#
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If we over think breastfeeding and follow the instruction manual of latching, the reflexes work differently. It is right brain instinctive behaviour, but it is easily over-ridden by our logic and analysis.
You and your baby are in sync, reacting to each other's subconscious, instinctive cues and breastfeeding naturally follows. That means he can get milk more easily and it is more comfortable for you. Lifting his head also means that his head are nicely tilted back so he can get a wide gape and a deep latch. He can use his hands on either side of your breast and push against you in order to lift his head and see where your nipple is. We are mammals, and just like kittens or puppies, babies are designed to lie on their tummy to latch and breastfeed. The reason that breastfeeding more easily when the baby is tummy down on mum's semi reclined body is because babies are designed to be "tummy feeders". Studies have shown that mums also participate and through stroking their baby, they seem to trigger exactly the right reflexes to latch at just the right time. These instinctive behaviours don't just happen in baby. As we discussed in the last blog, if placed on mums body, a baby will crawl to the breast and latch on. Left to their own devices a set of behaviours happen. In normal circumstances, when a baby is born, both mum and baby are in a biological state where they are primed to breastfeed.
#Open hands full closed hands hungry baby how to#
You can't learn how to maintain your balance on a bike unless you try it.
#Open hands full closed hands hungry baby free#
You could set out instructions which might mention something like this: Stand with each leg on either side of the frame, hold the handlebars straight, move one peddle to an almost vertical position, push this peddle down, maintain balance by turning the handlebars, push off this peddle to reach a sitting position, place the other foot on the free peddle, maintain balance by moving your body.Īgain, it describes what happens, but it certainly doesn't teach you how to do it. Learning to breastfeed is more like learning to ride a bike. This can lead to a feeling of rejection in a new mum and many stop breastfeeding without ever really having a chance to experience it.īreastfeeding doesn't really work as a set of instructions. Mums say things like, "he shakes his head to say No". What mums actually describe is that their baby is hitting her, or pushing her away, or shaking his head. They might look like a sensible approach when we are pregnant, but when you are in the early days of breastfeeding, awash with hormonal changes and trying to adjust to motherhood working out how to get each step to turn into a latched baby sometimes isn't so easy. They are what is known as left brain thinking. Those things are indeed an accurate observation of what a baby needs to latch, but they don't really tell you how to hold your baby or to get both of you working together. The instruction book might say things like this: Make sure your baby is in a straight line, head free, chin to breast, wide mouth, bring him in close. Over the years breastfeeding has been treated as a step by step process and instructions for latching created. That may work for maths problems, but it doesn't work so well with breastfeeding. We live in a society where teaching methods are dominated by analysing, categorising, breaking things into steps. It's very different from the experiential learning from observing and interacting with a breastfeeding mum. Today we mostly get our information from a short antenatal class, and usually some NHS literature - maybe the Bump To Breastfeeding DVD or the Off To A Good Start booklet. You would have seen women in shops, friends in their home breastfeed - it would have been common place. If you were the youngest you probably saw your elder siblings or your aunts or cousins breastfeed before you gave birth. You probably asked your mum about what she was doing at different stages and would know how a baby latches, what it looks like, and how to deal with problems. You probably had several siblings and would have seen them being breastfed. If you had been giving birth in Northern Ireland in 1915 you would likely have already been very familiar with breastfeeding. In a previous blog I briefly mentioned how our support networks would have been very different a hundred years ago. Much of this may be due to the way that breastfeeding is "taught" in recent years. A baby is also primed to find his mother's breast and to breastfeed when born, so why would a mum say that her baby is "fighting" her. It is a biological necessity for life that we need to eat. My baby pushes me away and shakes his headĪ baby needs to feed when he is born.
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