Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

Breast­feed­ing is a unique learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence for every new moth­er and ba­by. While it’s thought to be a nat­ur­al ac­tiv­i­ty, the ex­pe­ri­ence and wis­dom shared from all new moth­ers, is that it takes prac­tice, re­quir­ing time, pa­tience and may not come as nat­u­ral­ly as one may think. How­ev­er, when that op­ti­mal latch is achieved, the ful­fil­ment ex­pe­ri­enced is unimag­in­able. It is a mo­ment one nev­er for­gets! The ben­e­fits of hav­ing a breast-fed ba­by is ex­ten­sive and you’ll re­alise it’s worth the time and pa­tience it takes to get it right!

Breast­feed­ing is one of the best things moth­ers can do to give their in­fant a strong start in life.

WE are here to em­pow­er our new mom with the tools and re­sources you need to op­ti­mal­ly feed your ba­by and en­joy the process. WE are here to help make that hap­pen!

Hav­ing worked for years in a Neona­tal In­ten­sive Care Unit, I have ex­pe­ri­enced first­hand the coun­sel nec­es­sary to guide new moth­ers on their breast­feed­ing jour­ney, es­pe­cial­ly new moms, ea­ger to breast­feed. Some­times, the ex­haus­tion and anx­i­ety of be­ing a new moth­er can cloud the con­cerns get­ting it right. I’ve found that most new moms just need that calm­ing re­as­sur­ance and sup­port from loved ones.

Mayo Clin­ic re­ports that “the first few weeks of breast­feed­ing are a learn­ing pe­ri­od for both you and your ba­by. It takes time for you both to work as a team. Be pa­tient as you re­cov­er from your de­liv­ery, cre­ate a dai­ly rou­tine, and be­come com­fort­able with breast­feed­ing.”

When do I start breast­feed­ing?

Most full-term, healthy ba­bies are ready and ea­ger to be­gin breast­feed­ing with­in the first half hour to two hours af­ter birth. This first hour or two is an im­por­tant time for ba­bies to nurse and be with their moth­ers.

The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pae­di­atrics (AAP) rec­om­mends that ba­bies be placed skin to skin with their moth­er right af­ter birth (or when both you and your ba­by are able). Skin to skin means plac­ing your naked ba­by stom­ach-down on your bare chest. This keeps the ba­by warm, helps keep the ba­by’s blood sug­ar up, and helps the ba­by breast­feed for the first time. It is rec­om­mend­ed that ba­bies be kept skin to skin at least one hour. Or they can be kept this way longer if the ba­by hasn’t breast­fed yet.

Those first few days, moth­ers pro­duce colostrum, which pro­vides pro­tec­tive an­ti­bod­ies and helps the ba­by’s di­ges­tive sys­tem de­vel­op. By start­ing with this small amount of colostrum, the ba­by gets time to co­or­di­nate suck­ing, swal­low­ing and breath­ing at the same time.

How do you know if ba­by is breast­feed­ing op­ti­mal­ly?

No mat­ter what po­si­tion you use to feed your ba­by, it’s im­por­tant to get a good latch. It takes prac­tice, both for you and your ba­by. But a good latch will help you feel com­fort­able and help your ba­by get the most milk.

Signs of a good latch:

* The latch is com­fort­able and pain free.

* Your ba­by’s chest and stom­ach rest against your body, so that ba­by’s head is straight, not turned to the side.

* Your ba­by’s chin touch­es your breast.

* Your ba­by’s mouth opens wide around your breast, not just the nip­ple.

* Your ba­by’s cheeks stay round­ed, not hol­low, dur­ing suck­ing.

* Your ba­by’s tongue cups un­der your breast.

* You can hear and see your ba­by swal­low­ing.

* Your ba­by seem calm and re­laxed dur­ing feeds.

* You may feel sleepy and re­laxed af­ter feeds.

If you’re hav­ing trou­ble get­ting a good latch, try:

* Mov­ing to a qui­et, calm place.

* Hold­ing your ba­by skin to skin. While both you and your ba­by are un­dressed, hold your ba­by against your chest.

* Let­ting your ba­by lead. Sup­port your ba­by’s neck, shoul­ders, and hips with your hands. Of­fer your breast, but let your ba­by find your nip­ple on their own.

If your ba­by latch­es just on the tip of your nip­ple or it hurts, gen­tly put a clean fin­ger in your ba­by’s mouth to break the latch, then try again.

Is ba­by get­ting enough milk?

* Your ba­by gains weight steadi­ly af­ter the first two weeks – it’s nor­mal for ba­bies to lose some of their birth weight in the first two weeks.

* From the fourth day, they should do at least two soft, yel­low poos every day for the first few weeks.

* From day five on­wards, wet nap­pies should start to be­come more fre­quent, with at least six heavy, wet nap­pies every 24 hours. In the first 48 hours, your ba­by is like­ly to have on­ly two or three wet nap­pies.

Mas­ti­tis and breast­feed­ing

Mas­ti­tis means in­flam­ma­tion of the breast. It can be caused by blocked milk ducts (non-in­fec­tive mas­ti­tis) or a bac­te­r­i­al in­fec­tion (in­fec­tive mas­ti­tis). If a blocked milk duct is not cleared, flu-like symp­toms such as fever, body aches and pains may de­vel­op. Milk duct block­ages cause milk to pool in the breast and in­flam­ma­tion (pain and swelling). A cracked nip­ple can al­low bac­te­ria to en­ter the breast and cause an in­fec­tion.

To help pre­vent mas­ti­tis:

* Moth­ers and mid­wives should thor­ough­ly wash their hands be­fore touch­ing the breasts af­ter a nap­py change.

* Make sure the ba­by is po­si­tioned and at­tached prop­er­ly on the breast to as­sist in thor­ough breast­milk drainage.

* Avoid long pe­ri­ods be­tween feeds. Feed fre­quent­ly. Avoid skip­ping feeds, if re­plac­ing a breast­feed with a bot­tle, ex­press to avoid blocked milk ducts or a re­duc­tion in your breast­milk sup­ply.

* Wear loose, com­fort­able cloth­ing. Bras, if worn, should be prop­er­ly fit­ted.

Treat­ment for mas­ti­tis

It is im­por­tant to treat blocked milk ducts so they do not progress to mas­ti­tis. Op­tions in­clude:

1. The ap­pli­ca­tion of heat for a few min­utes be­fore a feed, gen­tle mas­sage of the af­fect­ed area dur­ing feed­ing, and cold packs af­ter a feed and be­tween feeds for com­fort. Make sure the cloth or heat pack is not too hot.

2. Vary­ing the feed­ing po­si­tion to in­crease breast drainage.

3. Fre­quent drainage of the breast us­ing breast com­pres­sion through breast­feed­ing and ex­press­ing.

4. If the block­age does not clear with­in 8 to 12 hours or you start to feel un­well, see your doc­tor.

For more in­for­ma­tion:

https://www.pa­ho.org/en/cam­paigns/world-breast­feed­ing-week-2023-lets-make-

breast­feed­ing-and-work-work