On Smooshing on the breast.

In my work for WIC, I often work with moms who are 3-30 days postpartum and
experiencing problems.  Several times I have seen moms attempt a latch by
actually *smooshing* or stuffing their nipple into a mouth, instead of
waiting for the baby to present with a big mouth.  So somehow the mother has
gotton the idea that this is the correct technique to latch their baby!  All
the mothers I've seen trying this are having problems either latching the
baby and/or sore nipples, and its harder to fix a latch with a baby thats
been latching incorrectly for two weeks because the mother didn't learn to
latch correctly in the hospital, perhaps because some well meaning person
tried to get the baby to latch with this smooshing techinque.  At the very
least, it must be made crystal clear to the mother that this is not the way
she should go about feeding her baby every day!

We always have to remember that the only goal isn't feeding the baby that one
feed..its helping the mother learn to latch the baby correctly herself so she
can do it independently.  So many woman are discharged without ever once
having latched their baby by themselves, and they think they cant' do it
without help.

My 2-cents worth.
June Eastman, BS, M.Ed, IBCLC
Lawrence Massachusetts WIC Program

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