- [Gabby] ...on and thank you so much for joining us today for our third Facebook Live during our breastfeeding
basics series for World Breastfeeding Week.
My name is Gabby and I am joined here with Dr. Alexis Sawyer who is a board-certified pediatrician
at Boys Town Pediatrics.
Today we're gonna be talking all about latching when it comes to breastfeeding.
So, if you have any comments on...or questions on this topic, please feel free to leave them in the comments
section of this video and we will get them answered at the end.
Also, if you haven't entered our giveaway, we are giving away different items every single day
this week for world breastfeeding week.
So go ahead and fill out the RSVP link that is above this video.
And I will also make sure to leave it in the comments section.
All the winners are going to be announced Friday in the breastfeeding basics Facebook event page.
Awesome.
So, Dr. Sawyer, how are you doing today?
- [Dr. Sawyer] I'm good, Gabby.
Thanks for having me and happy breastfeeding week.
- Yes.
Well, we really appreciate you hopping on.
So, let's get right into the questions here, all about latching.
So, what, in your opinion, do you think moms should know about latching
before their baby arrives?
- I think it's important that moms understand that latching is important.
It's one of the foundations of good, effective breastfeeding.
And it's important to get latched right so that your breasts will hold up through breastfeeding.
It's also important to latch your baby correctly so that you will be stimulated to produce enough milk.
And then last but not least, it's just important to have a good latch so that your
baby gets enough milk and has the proper nutrition.
I think it's also important just for moms to set appropriate expectations and know that they might not
get that latch right from the get-go and there are people around to help them with that.
So just to have just some realistic expectations.
- Yeah.
Definitely.
So, when it comes to getting a good latch, what tips do you have?
- So, I think there are multiple different things that will help you accomplish, like, a strong,
healthy latch in breastfeeding.
First of all, I think it's just important to make sure that you feel comfortable when you're trying to latch
your baby, feel like you're in a position that is comfortable for your body after you've had your baby.
It may be different for a mom who's had a vaginal delivery versus a C-section but know that it's just
important that you feel supported, that you have good back support,
arm support and that that's just a good thing to start with.
The support...I mean, some people will just use pillows for support
of their baby.
Some people will get fancy breastfeeding pillows.
They all kinda do the same thing.
People really like the Boppy pillow or the My Brest Friend pillow.
But once again, you can just use pillows that you have at home to help support as well.
I think another important thing to get a good latch is just to always remember to bring your baby to the
breast versus bringing your breast to the baby because that way you just allow just a better position.
You're not usually leaning forward more.
And then when you have to let go of your breast after the baby latches, that you don't have some separation
between the breast and the baby that way.
And then the last thing I think, something to keep in mind is to look for your baby's
cues of hunger and if they're playing around in their mouth, if they're moving their lips a lot or if it's
been a while since they fed, try to latch early.
It's harder to latch when your baby's upset and just ravenous.
It's just harder.
It's stressful.
It's just...it makes it more of a hurried task to do versus something that you can take your time
to get right.
And then I think another good thing is just trying to have someone around that's experienced in breastfeeding
can be a good thing to just have in order to get a good latch.
So, whether or not it's a nurse, a family member, a lactation consultant,
somebody who's experienced to just help that start the right way.
- Yeah, definitely using resources I think is great advice.
So, what can mom do if the baby is struggling to get a good latch?
- I think in the same vein is asking for help.
I think, you know, if you're working at it, you just feel frustrated, something doesn't feel right,
it's painful, it's just really important to ask for help.
It's different when you're the person trying to breastfeed the baby versus somebody watching.
And sometimes when you're in it and you're doing it, it's really hard to kind of reassess what's going on or
look outside of, you know, what you're doing at that very moment
to kind of troubleshoot.
So having somebody to help you troubleshoot can be a big part of that, I think.
So, and once again, it can be nursing, it can be a lactation consultant,
it can be a pediatrician, it can be a family member that you trust who
has breastfed before.
But I think that's just what everyone needs to be prepared to do is ask for help.
- Definitely.
There is no shame at all in asking for help, especially when it comes to their baby.
- Definitely not.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
So, what can moms do if they are feeling nipple soreness or pain due to latching?
- It's a pretty common problem.
And knowing that especially if it's your first baby or if you have inverted nipples which some people do,
initial latching can be a little uncomfortable but it shouldn't be sending you
through the roof uncomfortable.
And I think making sure that that latch is appropriate and it is...you have your correct latch will
help prevent that.
But if you're feeling the soreness or pain, one thing I have is making sure moms are using some
sort of nipple cream or emollient like a lanolin.
Also, something that I actually heard about after I had breastfed all my kids but really wish I had known
about earlier, there are some gel pads that you can put in your freezer called Soothies that you just slip
in your nursing bra and you can put on after you've been nursing and it just helps with the inflammation.
Let's see.
And then the last thing is a bit...very important thing to try to keep from nipple soreness or pain or keep it
from getting worse is just to make sure that you know how to de-latch your baby from the breast.
If you have your baby on and you don't have a correct latch or you're done with that side and the baby is
still on there, you need to really make sure you release that suction and the best way to do that is
to take your pinky finger and put it in the corner of the baby's mouth.
And you'll feel that release of suction and then it's safe to de-latch.
If you don't do that, you're gonna set yourself up for, you know, cracked nipples, bruising, things like that.
And I guess I should just go over what I think is important to look for for a good latch.
So, if you're feeling breast, you know, pain, soreness, you're having cracks, things like that,
just make sure that when you're looking at your baby getting on the breast that the baby's mouth is open
at a wider angle.
We don't want it to be closed like this.
We don't want just the nipple in there.
You wanna get as much of the areola in the baby's mouth as possible.
So, when you stimulate your baby to try to latch, if their mouth isn't open fully,
you can touch your nipple to, like, their nose or their chin and oftentimes that will just
automatically stimulate your baby to open their mouth real wide.
And then you put your baby to the breast pretty quickly and try to get, you know,
the benefit of that mouth being open very wide.
And so just making sure that you have that good open mouth.
A deep latch will help save your nipples from the cracking, the bruising and all the trauma.
And then just reassessing that if you feel like you are having those things happening.
- Yeah.
Are there any certain brands of nipple cream that you would recommend people look for?
- There are so many out there.
Some people like to stay away from lanolin, some people don't.
I think just finding something that you like the reviews or somebody in your family or your lactation
consultant has recommended. So yeah.
- Yeah. Cool.
I am seeing a couple of questions being left in the comments section.
So just know we will get to those at the end.
We have about three more questions.
So, if you're watching and you have a question for Dr. Sawyer, now is the time to comment and we will get
them answered very soon.
Okay.
So, in terms of partners, you know, maybe if mom is struggling to get a good latch,
how can their partner support them during this process?
- I think number one we want our partners to be encouraging.
So, we need a good cheerleader, somebody, if you're not feeling good about things,
to tell you it's okay, to take a deep breath.
I think it can be helpful for a partner to take the baby and let mom get repositioned and help them in a
comfortable position so that, once again, you can try it over.
It's also helpful because once again you're...when you're breastfeeding your own baby,
you're kind of in the middle of it and you don't have the best view sometimes about how baby is actually
going onto the breast, to have that person look and see if they see anything
that they can help you constructively do differently.
But once again, we like constructive criticism and we like lots of good cheerleading and so that's what a
partner should be there for.
I think also just being able to help you with pillows, positioning once again, those types of things.
- Definitely.
Okay, and then you were just talking a little bit about positions.
What did you think maybe in your experience was the best position to get a good latch?
Because I know there's the cradle hold and the football hold.
What would you recommend?
- So, there are a lot of different holds.
You can look online.
And there are some pretty creative ones, actually.
The most common are gonna be your cradle, your cross cradle hold which will be more
across the body, obviously and it's different just hand positionings between the cradle and the cross cradle.
And then the football positioning which is kinda just the baby's tucked under your arm.
And then there's also a sideline position where if you're laying down, you can nurse your baby lying
next to you.
And there's also a reclining position which is oftentimes your first position after you give
birth that, you know, a nurse will put your baby on your chest and that's
when you're first gonna get that latch.
It just depends on the mom, honestly.
So, it depends on how large your breasts are, it depends on if you just had a C-section,
it depends on how comfortable you are sitting in a chair versus reclining.
If you're having back problems, some of these may not be good ones for you and doing,
like, a sideline may be better.
So, I think every mom is gonna be different and I would recommend just kinda trying all of them out as you get
your breastfeeding going to see what's most comfortable for you and feels like it's most comfortable
for the baby too.
- Great.
Okay.
So, before we get to our questions in the comments, do you have any final tips for latching?
- I think knowing that it's a learning curve and it's a pretty steep one...once you get it,
you generally have it.
But just knowing that it can take some trial and error and you might get discouraged at first and
that's all normal.
I, you know, I tell moms, "It's perfectly reasonable to feel like you don't have
this all in sync and all together and everything's perfect until you're a couple
of weeks into breastfeeding."
So just knowing that it's a process and once again to ask for help.
And don't get discouraged.
I think that's key.
- Yes.
All right.
Let's move over to the comments here.
So, the first question is how do inverted nipples affect breastfeeding?
Is there anything different to do?
- So, I unfortunately had an inverted nipple when I was nursing my first child so I definitely have
some nipple cracking, I think.
And my OB kinda warned me, like, before I had my baby that that was gonna be maybe a
little bit of a hurdle for me.
There are...they're called nipple guards or breast guards or something like that.
They're kind of a domed plastic device that have a flat side with a hole in the middle that you can wear
in your bra to kinda train your nipple to come out.
And you can find them in stores.
You can find them online too.
And they're good to...and I would wear them in between breastfeeding to try to train that nipple just to kinda
be out a little bit more.
- Yeah.
- You can also...I mean, it's kind of uncomfortable for people but...to talk
about before delivering but if you feel like you do have an inverted nipple,
it's just trying to find ways to stimulate your nipple and stretch it out to be out and just preparing it
for breastfeeding that way.
And then I think people with inverted nipples should know that it's perfectly possible to get a good latch.
It just might take a little bit extra work.
And then knowing that it's really important to treat your nipples right with, like,
your lanolin or your nipple cream and then also if you are having pain, to ask for help and using some sort
of anti-inflammatory icing device would be good too.
- Awesome.
Okay, the next one is I have a pimple that I have been trying to get out but it keeps coming back.
So, I assume it's around the breast region.
Will it affect my breastfeeding?
- It should not unless it's very painful to put the baby near it or if it is,
you know...it affects your milk duct.
Sometimes you can notice that something that looks like a pimple...it kinda depends on where it is but it could
be a little bit of a clogged milk duct instead.
So, I mean, if it's an inflamed pimple or if it's an inflamed milk duct, what we would recommend is doing a
warm pack and seeing if we can get it to drain on its own.
But yes.
Having a pimple near the breast shouldn't bother anything with breastfeeding.
It's not harmful to your baby.
It just may be a little tender for you.
- Good.
Okay, going back really quickly on a follow-up on the inverted nipple question.
So, this one says, "Would it be a good idea to train an inverted nipple prebirth?"
- I think so.
I mean, if you have that...we like to plan.
So, if you feel like you do have an inverted nipple...I mean, you can talk to your OB about it too but I think
it's not a bad idea to work on trying to train it within your comfort to be a little bit more out just so
it makes it easier when baby's trying to latch that first time.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Good question.
- Okay.
And then it looks like we have one last question.
So, Allie is asking, "My baby has been latching great but was very fussy
during the evening.
Would latch...the baby would latch for a few minutes and then pull away screaming.
Any advice?"
- There is...I mean, there's a couple of different things that could
be from that.
If it's just a couple minutes of latching, sometimes they'll get kinda mad if you have a pretty
good letdown at that period.
So kinda knowing your breasts...if you feel like you have all of a sudden,
an excess of milk at a certain point, sometimes babies will pull off because it's,
like...they get this gush of milk and they're not super happy with it.
So, one thing you can do to try to help that is you can actually put a little pressure on the top of your
breast to kinda delay a little bit of that letdown if you can predict when it's gonna happen.
It's kinda hard sometimes.
The other thing to know is that evening time is when babies tend to be more fussy anyway so it may just be
that they're having a little bit of that nighttime fussiness.
And if they're refusing to go back on the breast, then I would, you know,
do the typical stuff we do to try to soothe our babies, burp them, you know, rocking, doing some white noise,
swaddling, that type of stuff to see if we can get them to calm down.
And if they still seem hungry, then you can retry.
But just knowing that it either may be due to just the nighttime fussiness or it could be due to just your...a
larger letdown of milk at that point.
- Yeah. Great. Awesome.
So, if you are not watching live and you have a question for Dr. Sawyer that you would like answered
about latching, feel free to go ahead and comment it on this video or send our Facebook page a message and I am
happy to pass along the question and get you your response.
For everybody watching, thank you so much for tuning in.
Dr. Sawyer, thank you for your expertise.
I know this helps alleviate a lot of stress when it comes to latching for new moms or moms
that are expecting. So, we really appreciate it.
- I'm happy to be here. Happy breastfeeding.
- Yes. And make sure you join us tomorrow.
We will be live at noon again with Dr. Annie Zimmer and we're going to talk
through common breastfeeding problems.
So going a little bit deeper on the topic tomorrow.
So, if you have questions for that, again, let us know and we will see you tomorrow.
Thanks everybody.