Ah, the asymmetric latch.  Did I spell it right?

    My group of LCs put on a conference for our network of 6 hospitals in
the Mpls/St. Paul area on Sept. 19 and we taught asymmetric latch to the
nurses
to teach to all of their moms during the pp stay.
    I think it all begins with supporting the base of the breast, not the
whole breast.  Most moms should place their hands flat on their ribs with
one or two fingers at most supporting the breast.  Women have a tendency
to do a good job supporting the breast with the whole hand, but this
usually obstructs the lower areola so baby's chin and lower lip can't be
there; baby ends up too high on the breast or too shallow.
    I've been teaching to line up baby's nose to mom's nipple, as I
learned at a conference probably from our dear Catherine Watson-Gehenna.
I think I'll try saying line up baby's upper lip to nipple and see if
that gives a clearer picture to moms.
     I usually say that babies learn pretty fast that when they opened
widely and latched to most/lots of areola, they got more milk faster -
'that worked better for me, I think I'll do it again'.

       Still open to ideas!

        Susan in Minnesota, USA
        rn ibclc

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