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Centre for Minimally Invasive Surgery & Maternity 166 9th Cross Indiranagar 1st Stage Bangalore 38 Tel: 2525 1573/2525 1139 Fax: 2520 0447 |
Keyhole
surgeries performed
E-Mail: info@rashminursinghome.com |
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Specialities
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All your pregnancy questions answered How to establish breast feeding Breastfeeding is the natural, physiologic way of feeding infants and young children milk, and human milk is the milk made specifically for human infants. Formulas are not a real substitute and its important to establish and maintain exclusive breast feeding for 4 months at least. A good start helps to assure breastfeeding is a happy experience for both mother and baby. The vast majority of mothers are perfectly capable of breastfeeding their babies exclusively for four to six months. In fact, most mothers produce more than enough milk. The trick to breastfeeding is getting the baby to latch on well. A baby who latches on well, gets milk well. A baby who latches on poorly has difficulty getting milk, especially if the supply is low. A poor latch is similar to giving a baby a bottle with a nipple hole which is too small; the bottle is full of milk, but the baby will not get much. When a baby is latching on poorly, he may also cause the mother nipple pain. And if he does not get milk well, he will usually stay on the breast for long periods, thus aggravating the pain. Here are a few ways breastfeeding can be made easy:
The vast majority of newborns can be put to breast within minutes of birth. Indeed, research has shown that, given the chance, babies only minutes old will often crawl up to the breast from the mother’s abdomen, and start breastfeeding all by themselves. This process may take up to an hour or longer, but the mother and baby should be given this time together to start learning about each other. Babies who “self-attach” run into far fewer breastfeeding problems. This process does not take any effort on the mother’s part, and the excuse that it cannot be done because the mother is tired after labour is nonsense, pure and simple. Incidentally, studies have also shown that skin to skin contact between mothers and babies keeps the baby as warm as an incubator.
There is absolutely no medial reason for healthy mothers and babies to be separated from each other, even for short periods. In RNH you will be handed your baby as soon as it is feasibly possible for you to handle the baby
There seems to be some controversy about whether “nipple confusion” exists. Babies will take whatever method gives them a rapid flow of fluid and may refuse others that do not. Thus, in the first few days, when the mother is producing only a little milk (as nature intended), and the baby gets a bottle (as nature intended?) from which he gets rapid flow, he will tend to prefer the rapid flow method. This leads to ‘nipple confusion’ and the baby would later never like to go back to the breast.
Your baby may be put to your breast as often and for as long as your baby wants.
If you do finally have a real difficulty in breast feeding please see the section on expressed breast milk feeding before going directly to formula feeds. This is a safe and easy alternative by which your baby will still benefit from your milk.
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