Dear Lactnet Readers, When I gave birth to my 6th child, I looked forward to a really wonderful nursing experience. I had had five others. If I had not been a LLL Leader, I would have quit, one week into the 6th experience. Despite well meaning help by an expert, I could not duplicate what she did. The helper was able to get my daughter latched on really well. But as soon as she turned her back, I couldn't. I suffered excrutiating pain for 3-4 weeks at every nursing. Why! My daughter would start closing her mouth on the way to my breast. And although, I tried very hard to do exactly what the helper had shown me and SPEED UP getting her on while her mouth was opened the greastest amount, her lovely little jaws would land on those deep red circular cuts around both nipples. THe helper was right. I hesitated before getting her on. I panicked and prepared myself for what I was sure would be a very painful latch on. It was! SOmewhere between my 6th and 7th, I read a helpful article by a well known lactation consultant in the States. In it she talked about putting some pressure on the chin by the mother with her fore finger to keep the mouth open [or getting it a little bit more open]. When I read that, my response was, "WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS!!!" Was it that the helper was opposed to this idea? Can't answer. Anyway, I decided to remember this piece of information. How many childbirth instructors have said that every pregnancy and every birth is different. Boy, was my 7th different. At 36 weeks, my daughter's life was saved by an emergency CS. She was two hours from death according to my midwife. She was born at 1485 grms. She was defined as premature. Gratefully, she had no other problems other than not being fat enough. Thanks to lots of information on finger feeding and cup feeding passed to me by Evi Adams and on site help by Toby Gish, she traveled all the way from Haifa to Jerusalem to help me, two years later, I am still having a wonderful nursing experience. Back to pressure on the jaw. This time it was not that my daughter did not keep her mouth open, it was that my precious bundle did not open her itsy bitsy tiny mouth quite enough - she was 1900 grms at the time. I whipped out this piece of information, and as Toby was helping her latch on, I put a very light amount of pressure on her chin, opening it just a bit more. Boy did that help. Also as Toby and I found out, despite all the good information written about nursing a premature baby foot ball style, the position that produced the best latch on was the old fashion craddle hold. What is the point. You never know what might resolve a problem. Don't knock ideas. Pressure on the chin helped me. I wish I had known about it with my sixth. Devorah from Israel PS Perhaps the point has been missed that pressure on the chin is for doing when the month is opening on its own. And the best person to do it is the mother.