Dear Lactnet Readers,

When I gave birth to my 6th child, I looked forward to a really wonderful
nursing experience. I had had five others.

If I had not been a LLL Leader, I would have quit, one week into the 6th
experience.

Despite well meaning help by an expert, I could not duplicate what she did.
The helper was able to get my daughter latched on really well. But as soon
as she turned her back, I couldn't.

I suffered excrutiating pain for 3-4 weeks at every nursing. Why!  My
daughter would start closing her mouth on the way to my breast. And
although, I tried very hard to do exactly what the helper had shown me and
SPEED UP getting her on while her mouth was opened the greastest amount, her
lovely little jaws would land on those deep red circular cuts around both
nipples. THe helper was right. I hesitated before getting her on. I panicked
and prepared myself for what I was sure would be a very painful latch on. It
was!

SOmewhere between my 6th and 7th, I read a helpful article by a well known
lactation consultant in the States. In it she talked about putting some
pressure on the chin by the mother with her fore finger to keep the mouth
open [or getting it a little bit more open]. When I read that, my response
was, "WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS!!!" Was it that the helper was opposed to this
idea? Can't answer.

Anyway, I decided to remember this piece of information.

How many childbirth instructors have said that every pregnancy and every
birth is different. Boy, was my 7th different.

At 36 weeks, my daughter's life was saved by an emergency CS. She was two
hours from death according to my midwife. She was born at 1485 grms. She was
defined as premature. Gratefully, she had no other problems other than not
being fat enough.

Thanks to lots of information on finger feeding and cup feeding passed to me
by Evi Adams and on site help by Toby Gish, she traveled all the way from
Haifa to Jerusalem to help me, two years later, I am still having a
wonderful nursing experience.

Back to pressure on the jaw. This time it was not that my daughter did not
keep her mouth open, it was that my precious bundle did not open her itsy
bitsy tiny mouth quite enough - she was 1900 grms at the time. I whipped out
this piece of information, and as Toby was helping her latch on, I put a
very light amount of pressure on her chin, opening it just a bit more. Boy
did that help. Also as Toby and I found out, despite all the good
information written about nursing a premature baby foot ball style, the
position that produced the best latch on was the old fashion craddle hold.

What is the point. You never know what might resolve a problem. Don't knock
ideas. Pressure on the chin helped me. I wish I had known about it with my
sixth.

Devorah from Israel

PS Perhaps the point has been missed that pressure on the chin is for doing
when the month is opening on its own. And the best person to do it is the
mother.