What About Preparing for Your Breastfeeding Journey?
A lot of attention is placed on the importance of health and support during pregnancy and birth preparation so that both the well-being of the mother and baby are optimized. What if we embraced the same approach to preparing for newborn breastfeeding? To ensure infants are breastfeeding successfully and mothers are not suffering with discomfort and pain during this precious bonding and nurturing time, it’s worthy of being included in every birth plan, especially since a baby’s first latch is meant to take place within the first hour of being born.
So let’s get curious about what plays into successful breastfeeding and how understanding more about the mechanics of it is a good place to start. For instance, did you know that sucking, swallowing and breathing are all being synchronized and playing a part in the milk transfer from your breast to your baby’s digestive tract? With this in mind, we need to be interested in what can disrupt or affect the optimal suck, swallow, breathe mechanisms within a baby’s cranium. Have you ever noticed that when a baby is breastfeeding, it’s as if their whole body is participating? Well it actually is! So then we need to also get interested in how a baby is feeling after their birth experience and wonder whether there are any tension patterns that need to be addressed and released to support them into being comfortable in their body.
Mothers and babies have a variety of experiences with breastfeeding. Some are fortunate to be skin to skin together immediately after birth and to be granted the time necessary for the newborn to motion towards latching onto the breast without any intervention.
However, more often than not, babies are separated from their mothers or their contact is interrupted for various reasons, some valid and some not. Mothers can let their caregiver(s) know ahead of time that they would prefer newborn assessment routines to wait until after their baby has rested and had a chance to self latch. If testing is necessary, parents can request to have it done while their baby is skin to skin on mom, or next to them if skin to skin isn’t possible right away. This important time will allow an infant’s nervous system to regulate as they acclimatize to being outside of their previous in-utero protected environment.
It’s also good to know that a variety of issues during gestation, birth and postpartum have the potential to impact optimal breastfeeding. Every pregnancy and birth experience for mothers and babies is unique. Some struggle with stress during development, some with a multiple pregnancy, or premature labour. Others face complications with malpresentation, with the cervix not coming into full dilation or with navigating the pelvis and rotation.Sometimes these challenges lead to a cesarean birth, or the use of forceps or vacuum extraction on the baby’s head. Interventions such as induction, the rupturing of the amniotic sac, and medicated births, to name a few, can compromise successful breastfeeding by affecting sensory pathways and increasing the intensity of compression on the skull and body during contractions. Examples of a postnatal impact are when a baby is separated from its mother or gets oral suctioning with a bulb syringe or a tube to clear the airways.
Be aware that nipple shields are sometimes handed out to mothers in the hospital to assist with getting a baby to latch more efficiently. However, it’s important to be mindful that the use of a nipple shield is a temporary solution, yet can easily become a crutch if the root of the problem is not addressed within the first week of birth. It’s important to know that nipple shields can create other problems, which therefore requires a support plan for both mother and baby to discontinue the use of them.
Let’s not forget about the possibility of a tongue-tie affecting optimal breastfeeding. It’s so important for expectant and new parents to know that there are true tongue-ties and faux tongue-ties. A true tongue-tie is predominantly when the frenulum attaches to the inferior gum line, which occurs in 5% of people and requires clipping. A faux-tie is due to compression and tension dynamics that impact the muscles of the face, the cranial nerves, the cranial bones, the mouth floor, and tongue posture, possibly stemming from the neck, thoracic area, and lower in the body. For example, it’s common for torticollis to be mistaken for tongue-tie. A thorough professional assessment is important to effectively evaluate both appearance and function of the frenulum. A true tongue-tie is resolved easily and quickly preferably with a clip over a laser. A faux-tie can be treated by a craniosacral therapist who specializes in infant breastfeeding. In more complicated cases, it can become necessary to also work with a chiropractor or myofunctional therapist. It is best to address concerns sooner than later, otherwise the mother often feels pain and the baby suffers from digestive upset and both are left feeling frustrated, stressed and exhausted.
The good news is that when expectant couples prepare for breastfeeding during pregnancy, they acquire proficient relevant knowledge, important resources and necessary practical skills ahead of time, making it so much easier to navigate their breastfeeding journey and to support their baby’s well being with shared self assurance and self confidence.