I'm sure you have thought of this, but I have found that I spend a lot of time emphasizing the positioning of the baby, because if you get the positioning right, latching will probably also be right. I use $1 teddy bears from the Dollar Store and have moms practice positioning, and almost always the moms have their "babies" not close enough, and more towards their armpit rather than towards their midline. I show moms how to readjust the bear so that it is plastered to their chest, and to position the nose directly in front of the nipple so baby can extend the head (rather than tuck the chin to the chest). This puts the baby in a perfect position to latch on easily. I also feel that is is important to emphasize that how the latch feels is much more important than how it looks, usually. You can check it at the end, when the nipple comes out of the baby's mouth -- it will be either round (good) or pinched (bad). Having the moms actually do the positioning is much more valuable than the best picture, because they will forget the picture, or their own breast will look very different than the picture (larger or smaller areola, for example). All of the credit for the above goes to Diane Wiessinger and Rebecca Glover! Lynnette Hafken, MA, LLLL, IBCLC *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html