Dear Lactnet Friends:

Christine writes, "Due to the effects of labor, delivery, epidural. . ."
"many babys won't latch and suckle without the shield."

Whatever happened to waiting, keeping baby s2s and letting baby recover?
There is no rush to make a baby breastfeed. If we, the experts, stay calm,
and say,"many baby don't breastfeed for a while, we have strategies to help
you", the mother will be calm. We deal with upset mothers and families all
the time; we have the knowledge and tools to help without reaching for a
gadget.

If a shield is used in the hospital, then the mother needs to be also
pumping or hand expressing to be sure she will produce enough milk when the
baby is months older. Prolactin receptor site priming to calibrate milk
supply occurs in the early weeks.

A nipple shield is a tool, designed for a precise purpose. I didn't hear
any maligning; just genuine concern about their over-use.

I just reviewed a study published in Midwifery in 2013, where the authors
surveyed 81 mothers. The majority of mothers liked the shield. However,
there is no mention of exclusivity in this paper, and the average age of
weaning was 12.5 weeks. The Chertok study, where shields were shown not to
have any impact on infant weight gain, didn't have many exclusively
breastfed babies.

Where is the evidence that thick newborn milk transfers through a shield?

warmly,

-- 
Nikki Lee RN, BSN, Mother of 2, MS, IBCLC, CCE, CIMI, ANLC, CKC
Author:* Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Breastfeeding Therapy*
www.nikkileehealth.com
https://www.facebook.com/nikkileehealth

*Get my FREE webinar series*

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