Ah, the C hold.  I think babies approach a breast just the way we approach
a Big Mac.  We would never turn the Big Mac on edge to try to bite into it.
We keep the sandwich's long axis parallel to a line drawn corner to corner
thru our own mouth.

A C hold involves holding the breast the way we hold a Big Mac - with the
long axis running side to side.  Fine.  *But for most of us, the baby is
sideways in our arms.*  A line drawn thru the corners of his mouth runs
floor to ceiling, not side to side.  I always make sure that the baby's
"sandwich" in that case also runs floor to ceiling - a U hold, not a C
hold.  The C hold makes perfect sense for a baby in a football hold, but
not for a baby whose head is sideways.

I think the reason mothers so commonly go for a scissor hold is that it's a
convenient way to make a U shape when the baby is cradled madonna-style.
It's really awkward to shape a U any other way unless the baby is in a
transverse hold.

Some babies, cradled madonna-style, nonetheless have their heads angled
almost upright, so that the line thru the corners of the mouth runs side to
side, not floor to ceiling.  For those babies, a c hold makes sense.  But
for the truly sideways baby with a truly sideways head, I can't see a
c-hold as anything but counter-productive.  Babies may be able to latch *in
spite* of it;  I don't think they latch *because* of it.

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY