on 1/20/02 9:38 AM, Jim & Winnie Mading at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> The idea of striped top for mom in pictures is great.
> Don't understand the "cheek to breast" however.  I get the image of the
> "baby on it's back, tickle the cheek and get baby to turn to the breast"
> advice which wound up with baby trying to nurse looking over its
> shoulder!  Please explain further.

While older babies can nurse actively and have their head far enough away
from the breast that the corner of their mouth shows, it's unusual for a
newborn to nurse effectively that way.  Usually, they're plastered right in
there, cheek right against breast and hiding the corner of the mouth.  Look
at the pictures in Jack's book, or Bestfeeding, or the cover of
Wilson-Clay/Hoover's Breastfeeding Atlas.  The cheek is right against the
breast, except when someone's trying to *show* how wide the mouth corner is,
in which case they rock the newborn away slightly.  And they are able to do
that *only* after the baby is well-attached and has formed a good solid teat
in his mouth.

But if a new mother, knowing nothing, tries to imitate what she sees in most
pictures, as she latches the baby on she'll stop short of an effectively
deep latch and she'll continue to hold the baby so that the corner of his
mouth is visible.  And that means he's "cliffhanging", clinging there just
because of very determined suction, and that means she'll get sore (and
he'll probably get less milk).

I get really nervous with a lot of the images we show new mothers, because
they show older, stronger, more experienced babies who've gathered in a
whole hunk of breast and can sit there, neither nose nor chin touching, and
Hoover away very effectively.  As part of my positioning "spiel", I always
remind mothers that they *shouldn't* be able to see that mouth corner, that
the cheek should be right against their breast.  At least in the early
weeks.  At least on most breasts (smaller cone-shaped breasts excepted).
Scott's "cheek to breast" is just a simpler key phrase for them to remember.

Some of our positioning pictures, I'm convinced, were taken at the *end* of
a feed, after the photographer finally had his lighting right.  Baby is
sated, arm relaxed, eyes closed, slipping *off* the breast... and that's
what we show to mothers as an example of how the *beginning* of a feed
should look.  Ouch!
--
Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY
www.wiessinger.baka.com

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