It is important to understand what to expect from breastfeeding at baby’s different ages and developmental stages, each which provides its own pleasures and difficulties.
The early days of breastfeeding are crucial as baby needs to get latching right and mom needs to establish milk production. How one manages problems in this time can make or break breastfeeding in the longer run.
Eventually these early weeks will pass. You can now start to expect the joy and fulfilment that you were promised. Of course there are also things you may not have expected – growth spurts, biting babies and waking up to feed at night, to name a few.
Breastfeeding will shape and shift as the journey continues and eventually draws to an end.
On demand, right? Most moms know this, but what does it mean? Surely it means to feed whenever baby is hungry? Which you would think would be every 3-4 hours, as is recommended on formula tins. The truth is that breastfeeding patterns differ from formula feeding patterns. Many mothers stop breastfeeding because they interpret their baby’s perfectly normal feeding patterns to be a sign of baby not getting enough breast milk. And psst… many formula babies also do not wait[...]
You may have heard about the Golden Hour - the first hour after birth which is so important for baby’s physiological adaptation to being outside the uterus, for bonding, and for getting a kickstart at establishing breastfeeding. This hour can actually stretch to 2-3 hours. Ideally baby should be skin-to-skin on mom’s chest, and there should be minimum medical interventions. And if all goes to plan, baby should latch and get his very first feed. Except this doesn’t always happen.[...]
