>Has anybody ever had a mother breastfeed  lying on her back with her
>baby on her tummy?  What I had in mind is the scenes of self-attachment
>after birth when the baby crawls up to the breast and latches on.
>
>I have a mother whose baby had surgery last week for a
>myelomeningocele.  He has an incision across his lower back.  Mom is
>using the cross cradle position with a nursing pillow but the baby's
>incision is not healing well.  He's supposed to be positioned on his
>stomach all the time and Dad felt that the cross cradle position was
>putting too much pressure on his back.
>
>Can the baby latch on and get enough milk by lying on top of mom?

Rachelle, this is what we, in Australia, call 'posture feeding' and is
often suggested when mothers have a fast let-down. The baby drinks 'uphill'
and this is supposed to reduce the fast flow. I worry about how easy it
will be be for mother to attach and position baby well in this position,
but if that's OK, she can feed this way. I'm not totally convinced that
this position actually helps the fast flow, but many believe it does. There
is a warning with this position though - it is recommended that mum finish
the feed in a more upright, conventional way, to make sure that the breast
is drained well. So perhaps she could feed most of the feed in this
position and just finish for a short while in the more conventional manner.
This would minimise the stress on baby's back.

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Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
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