Ann wrote:
Please suggest some positions that might help this mom and baby. She does
not fit into any of our chairs at the hospital, and in the bed we can slide
a pillow alongside her and get him into football hold, yet he seems
precariously perched there, as she fills most of the hospital bed. If we put
him under her breast, he gets so cozy he doesn't suck at all, just sighs and
goes to sleep.  Hopefully he will be waking up better today and she will be
feeling better as well. If anyone could offer some suggestions for me, I
would appreciate them very much.


Have you tried having her in a side-lying position? This might be tricky in
a standard hospital bed, but perhaps you could push a second bed up bside
her bed, or even put a thick blanket on the floor and let her try it that
way. I find that large-breasted women often find this easier - without
gravity pulling their breasts down, they can position them better.

The baby's sleepiness is probably a big factor here too.

As I think about this, I wonder if another possibility might be to have the
baby sitting in a carseat/baby seat (probably propped up a little with
rolled-up towels) so that the mother could then use two hands to hold and
support her breast as she feeds him. (I think of how many of us have fed
babies in cars this way.) I can see it would be hard with a newborn but
might be worth a try.

Ann, I am really glad you are working with this mother and hope you can find
some positions that work. I am sure that she has received many negative
messages about her body already, and it will just be one more blow if she
finds she is unable to breastfeed because of her size.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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