Gonneke writes a great idea I hadn't heard described so clearly before:

<Many loose formed and heavy breasts also have a nipple that seems to
hang
underneath the breast, thus making latching the baby on difficult for the
mom, because she doesn't see what she does. . . .
If feeding in the ''classic'' hold, instead of lifting the breast from
underneath, mom can place her hand (the one opposit to the breast that
the
baby will latch on) above her breast, fingers towards the outer two
quadrants/armpit, thumb pointing towards moms neck/shoulder. The hand is
pushed down towards the the chestwall and upwards following the thumbs
lead.
The breast is lifted, the nipple comes up with it and protudes forward
and
the baby can latch.>

She adds

<What I often did, . . .is similar to the teacup hold, but what I did was
to pinch a
peace of skiin at the top of my breast about 5cm behind the nipple and
then
lift the nipple and have it protude a bit more and present it like that
to
the baby.>

Exactly one of the features making the teacup hold succeed - - having the
tips of the thumb and forefinger almost 4-5 cm. away from the base of the
nipple, then lifting the nipple by the areola to present it to the baby.

If one can manage to draw the baby in at the same time to "place" him on
the presented nipple, so much the better, but not always essential if mom
can't manage it at the same instant. Drawing him close immediately after
usually works quite well.

Jean
*********
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA

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